Language

Malcolm's hit the stage where he doesn't have very many words he can say but has very definite ideas about what he does and does not want and it's becoming frustrating to him (and me!) that he can't express those ideas. I hadn't been sure how much to worry about his lack of words when he clearly wasn't meeting the "expected" marks at the past couple doctor's visits (except that the doctor herself didn't seem too worried about that and I swear they're asking all the same questions I got asked with Gareth except they ask them one visit earlier, which at this point amounts to 3-6 months earlier). He had a whole slew of sound effects that he'd learned from Gareth - he'd even started saying some things like "ai-uken!" after Gareth ran around one night pretending he was playing Streetfighter IV and shouting "shaiuken" or whatever it is they say over and over and over - but not much where actual words were concerned.

Anyway, up until the last couple days he's pretty solidly stuck with just a couple regular words and a few others that you might eek out of him once every month or so. "uh-oh" and "peek-a-boo" were the regulars, along with "daddy" (though this is often used for random things that are definitely not daddy). "Shoes" joined the regulars a couple weeks ago. "Ball", "hi", "nose", and what I assumed was "baby" had come and then gone again and now "ball" seems to have come back.

In the last week he seems to be blossoming in the language area. We've added "woof", first to refer to a specific toy and now he'll say it almost every time he sees a dog. He'll say "hoo, hoo" when playing with a toy owl. I've had a couple times where he's said "boopy" to mean "poopy" and walked me to his room so I can change his diaper (dare I hope this is a good indicator for our potty-training future?). "Ow" has become his generic "I am displeased with what is happening" word and yesterday he even said "bye" to Ryan. "Daddy" also refers to me and whenever I'm chasing him down he'll try to imitate me saying "I got you". Today at lunch he even managed a successful "apple", so that will likely join the regular vocab here pretty soon. He was starting to throw quite a few tantrums, so I'm hopeful that the new language development will help to stem some of that as he discovers that he can use more than just fire truck/car/monster/explosion sounds to express himself!