Dis and That

Zeke's favorite thing to say these days is "this" or something that sounds more like "dis". He can stand somewhere for hours (it seems) pointing at something and saying "this". Sometimes "this" indicates that he wants to pay attention to something or that he wants something or that he wants us to name something. It has nearly erased all other words and has completely replaced the once common "ah-da". Here he is at the jelly tank last month, exhibiting his new mode of expression.

We counted yesterday and figured that Zeke has around 25-30 words and animal sounds. I'm not even going to look up and see how many words a 20 month old is supposed to say. In all honesty, it makes me a little antsy as I would love him to have more words to express himself. I sometimes feel a little worried, especially when we have so many friends with children the same age or younger who are almost speaking in sentences. My super rational and relatively well educated voice knows the right things to say: he is a boy, he has got amazing receptive language, he signs, we do the appropriate things with him to model language. It wasn't that long ago that I was anxious to see him roll over, sit up, stand and walk, but those all happened in good time and in Zeke's time. And, finally, I was pretty speech delayed, but I still manage to have plenty of things to say these days. Still, sometimes that crazy voice speaks a little too loudly. I also hate for him to get compared to other children which inevitably happens in some situations. Generally, super rational voice reigns, but it can be an epic battle.

Crazy voice got tamped down a little this week with the word count. It was more than I expected. We visited the pediatrician this week and she thought that was a marvelous and perfectly normal number. She helped me realize that I would probably worry no matter the number (high or low) and that I likely won't remember any of this in a few years. Finally, what really helped was Zeke. He just spontaneously said "hat" the other day, as well as "Che". Good boy for helping Mommy's crazy voice go away!

And, to really make myself feel better, I am telling myself that Zeke is well on the path to literacy. This is not entirely truth, but I can still buy it. For example, Zeke has a cute set of wood refrigerator magnet letters (thanks, Cheryl!). When I first put them on the fridge, Zeke kept grouping the letters in matching pairs. Two by two, the letters moved up and down the refrigerator. Also, in a few books we have, we can point to a word and he will say what is there. Wow! Granted, in both cases it is when the dogs say "oooooooo", but I'm going to take it to mean something. I mean, crazy voice has to win sometimes!