HOW DO THEY GROW SO QUICKLY?

Baby T and his babies

As if Baby T wasn’t already the cutest little guy in the world, he has gotten even cuter over the past few weeks. Heck—over the past few DAYS! All of a sudden he is turning into a little boy. Maybe he is making room for the new little baby to come into our lives. It’s bittersweet to see him grow up. But I know I had better get a handle on it, because it’s going to keep happening for the rest of my life.

It started when, a few weeks ago, I decided that Baby T really needs to start doing his sign language. I had been using the signs for “milk” and “more” since he was 2 or 3 months old. I thought it was strange that he has been using other hand signals—like waving bye bye and giving high fives—since he was 7 or 8 months old, but still hadn’t picked up on those I was actually TRYING to teach him. So that day, while Baby T was nursing, I just said, “T… show me milk.” And his little arm went up in the air with his fist pumping open and closed. I hooted with joy. Baby T gave me the old nipple smile. And then I realized. He knew how to do it all along; he just didn’t realize that I wanted HIM to use the sign. He just knew that I always showed it to him when I was giving him milk.

That day or the next, he used the sign for “more” when I asked him to show it to me. THAT, my friends, created a little monster. The most adorable monster ever, though. Now he frantically signs “more” whenever he wants something. Usually it’s food, but it can be anything. If he sees one of his toys on the kitchen counter, he will stand under me and yell and frantically bang his hands with their closed little fingers into each other. If you bring him something he didn’t want, he just shakes his head and keeps signing.

A few days ago, I taught him how to do fist bumps. He thinks it’s great, and I think it makes him super cool. He will even give fist bumps to the baby in the mirror.

His Pop Pop taught him to say “beep beep” and press his nose with his finger. He’s been doing that for a couple of weeks. And then the other morning, the oven timer went off. Baby T looked at me and said “beep beep”.

He uses a ton of words, and understands everything I ask him to do. If I ask him to go get a book, he will walk to his room and come back with a book. Most of the time. He loves babies and calls his little Fisher-Price beefy men his “babies.”

He says cat, dog, dada, mama, agua, milk, bye bye, hi, hey, banana, mas (“more” in Spanish), car, walk, go, duck, quack, choo choo, shoe, sock, night night, woof. His new favorite thing to do is roar. He will walk around the house roaring, and he can tell you that’s what the lion says. This morning, after I gave him a raspberry on his belly, he said “tickatickaticka” (tickle tickle). Yesterday he said “sippy.” He said it the way he says “tickatickaticka” over and over again when we tickle him. He said, “sippysippysip.” But there is a little southern drawl in there or something so it comes out sounding like “siuppysiuppysiup.” It’s adorable. And if he's looking for something, he holds his hands up in a shrug.

He is becoming so observant, too. This past weekend, I was trying to pack some bags and he kept grabbing them, putting them over his shoulder, and walking to the door saying "bye bye". Is this what he notices when I leave the house? That I grab my purse and walk out the door saying "bye"??



And yesterday, when he came home from daycare, he was having conversations. With us, with himself, with the cat and the dog, complete with gestures, pointing, and hand movements. He will look you right in the eye and tell you something VERY important. And just yesterday, he started repeating everything I said to him. It’s probably only intelligible to me and Big T, but he is really talking.

I have to stop hooting, hugging him, and melting into a puddle of overly proud mommy-ness and telling him he’s a genius every time these things happen. He is going to be very embarrassed when I drop him off at college.