Communication Progress
We have had an eventful couple of weeks since Alex’s birthday party. On Thursday, January 13th, Alex said his first words. His first discernible word was ‘banana’. He says, “Nana” and does the ASL sign for ‘banana’ at the same time. It is very adorable. His other word is ‘glasses’. It must be because so many people around him wear glasses and are constantly telling him not to touch the glasses. Shortly behind those two words came “No, no.” I am sure you can guess why that word came up so soon!
Alex has also expanded his ASL vocabulary. Besides the signs for ‘eat’, ‘more’, ‘dog’, ‘frog’, ‘horse’, and ‘bib’, he has added signs for ‘all done’, ‘bath’, and the afore mentioned ‘banana’. He has even created his own sign for when he needs his diaper changed. He grabs his shirt mid-chest and pulls out repeatedly. When you ask him if he wants his diaper changed, he grins and runs to the stairs to be taken up to his room and changing table.
Alex has been saying “Mama” and “Dada” for a long time without really associating the sounds with either James or myself. Well, he finally gets it. At least for one of us. This weekend he used the ASL sign for ‘father’ and said, “Dada” while pointing at James. Maybe knowing my name will follow soon?
Alex is also much better at understanding what we are saying to him. When you tell him it is time to eat, he walks over to his highchair. When it is time to nurse, he goes to the glider and tries to pull up the Boppy. When you ask where Xena is, he runs to the back door to see if she is outside. He can identify and go get multiple types of toys, and he loves running to the door and greeting both Mommy and Daddy when we get home from work.
We have also had a lot of fun in the past two weeks. We attended two different birthday parties. The first was at a friend’s house for his two-year-old. Alex was again fascinated by the older children and not overwhelmed at all. The next morning we went to Pump-it-Up in Fort Worth for another friend’s four-year-old’s party. The staff there was really nice and brought out a couple of cars and toys for him to play with since he was too little for most of the activities. Alex loved running around there. We bounced a little and slid down a huge slide. He seemed to love it all.
Then this past week, Alex’s aunt was in town from Seattle. We got to hang out with Aunt Nicole and Mike and go out to eat a lot. Alex had fun with everyone. Hopefully we will get to take him up to Seattle this summer to visit!
There are a few more pictures under the photos tab. Enjoy!