I have had the worst stomach ache of anxiety all week. Tied up in knots, can’t relax, in constant panic mode. There’s no reason for it, well besides the global crisis we’re all facing, but that’s not new. Nothing’s changed this week, I’ve actually mostly stopped watching/reading the news even. My body has just decided that we’re stressed out this week and should panic.
So with that being my mindset, despite the fact I feel like I should be much more comfortable right now, I’m going to give a very cute, baby-centric update. Because that’s more fun to talk about.
I think because we’re home and spending more time together, I’m exposed to more of E’s funny toddler talk. Sure we’d get it occasionally before, but now at least once a day I find myself stopping and writing down what he’s saying. They’re all usually unprompted and completely unrelated to whatever is happening (at least in my mind), so I often can’t provide much context to them. They leave me confused and smiling usually.
“I got bubbles in my arm! To help people!”
“Mama! I got a weedwacker for you!” *Hands me a tampon*
“I have a secret note for you. I love you many miles to Florida!”
As I was walking into the kitchen to follow E and G: “Don’t go over there! There’s bunnies!” I told him, oh I like bunnies though. “No! You can’t step on them, only E and G can step on them!”
He’s also been stopping Tom and I fairly often to say “You’re doing a great job!” which I will admit, cheers me up every time I hear it. He also told me that he liked my office because “It’s so cute!”
As much as he’s talking and saying random things, he’s also taken to talking in his own language more and more. E speak has been around since he started talking, but since daycare’s closed, it’s at least half the words out of his mouth. It seems like a regression because instead of having a classroom of other kids to talk to, his only playmate now is G who also mostly babbles. It’s not something we’re worried about, but it is making life more interesting.
G is also talking up a storm, and more and more we’re understanding what he’s saying. I’m pretty sure he’s already reached the point where I can’t keep a list of words he can say. He routinely strings together two words to make sentences “Help me,” “Thank you,” “All done,” “What’s this,” “Mama, up!” etc, and will randomly copy what you’re saying regularly. He still refuses to do anything on command, and will only talk if you’re not paying attention, not looking at him, not making a big deal about it. I tried to write up a word list for his 15 month update, but I already have a list of words at least as long that I forgot: Bubbles, pop, row, beep, gulp, mop, yay, cheese, bye, hi…
Some of them may seem weird for a 1 year old to be saying, but they only appear at certain times, for example when singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” he’ll clearly say “Row” and sing along. Wheels on the bus, he’ll say “Beep”, Slippery Fish, he’ll say “Gulp.” And the reason I know that is that he had a video conference with his daycare class and they did their whole morning routine, and sang songs, and G played along the whole time. It was more adorable than you’re imagining.
Now will the sun come out again, please? It’s easier to imagine everything’s going to be okay when the sun is shining…
As our children get older, it’s interesting to hear them talk more. It goes from learning words, to sentences, to actual random thoughts in their mind. And that’s where things get interesting. I start to hear about dreams they have about a mama dinosaur that their brother is afraid of but it’s really just “a nice dinosaur because it’s nice.”
I’ve also learned you really can’t take anything personal with kids. I was prepared for them to tell me they hated me, because I think that’s a normal part of growing up. That doesn’t phase me. Even saying that I’m the meanest mama ever and that I never let them do anything doesn’t phase me. (Sometimes they’re right!). It’s the specific ones that I think about days or weeks later. The ones that come out of no where.