Words

Along with signing more, Matthew is saying more, and we have officially declared him to have a vocabulary. He has quite a few regular sounds, but the "words" he has are different that because they are associated fairly regularly with consistent objects or people. It is funny to watch him figure out words. Given that he has so few, a word must mean a lot, so whereas we have very specific meanings, his are quite broad. And instead of coming up with new words (new words are hard!) he just makes do with the words he has by broadening the definition (see "doey") . His current language set includes, in order of appearance:

"uh oh". Not really a word, but definitely an expression with a meaning - that being "something that is not what it should be - often because I made it that way". As in, "I dropped the book on the floor": "uh-oh", or "I threw my food on the floor": "uh-oh". This was technically his first sound with consistent discernible meaning, but most kids get this one early and it isn't really a word per-se. So we are going to give the honour of first word to "mum-mee"

"Mum-mee". This one is very clear and is consistently associated with Kristine and pictures of Kristine. However I am also included in this sometimes. "Da-dee" is very close to being part of the lexicon, but it is not consistent enough yet - though he does say it and it is associated with me.

"doey". Also very clear, and used regularly to refer to Joey... and Patches, and cats, and sometimes animals in general. Like I said, when you only have 5 words, you make them work for ya. We were in Superstore and he went tearing down the isle (why walk when you can run... everywhere!) and came to a stop in front of a huge bag of cat food with a big picture of a cat on it. He proudly turned to me and pointed at the bag declaring "doey!".

"nana". the most consistent and specific of all: banana.

"ba-boo". Bottle. This one is fairly new. he uses it intermittently, but only associated with his bottle.

If you include his signs, he also has language for "more", "milk", "wash hands", "hot", "bye", "all done" and of course the ubiquitous "that" which is just pointing. The degree to which 'that' is important is conveyed by the earnestness of the point, or, the exceedingly annoying "unuhhh!!! uuuhhhh!! uuuhhh!!".

But what he can communicate to us is far outstripped by what he understands. He can respond to fairly complex instructions, like "go find mommy" or "go get your shoes and jacket because we need to go". Basically we talk to him like a real person and he responds. It is fascinating. Also dangerous because we have to watch what we say now. I don't really want his next word to be "oh crap".

Matthew's Sign Language Dictionary

This winter, Matthew and I took a baby sign language course with Karen from WeeHands. We've been signing a bunch of words at home with him, but as of yet, he is only signing back a few. These are some of the signs in Matthew's repertoire. I think he understands several others, but he just doesn't feel the need to use them himself...yet.

"wash your hands":

"more":

"hot":
This sign has morphed a little bit. It used to be just for hot things, but now he uses it to tell us that something is hot, the light is bright, that there is danger nearby or just a general temperature variance.

"All Done!"

He has a few other signs too like "bye-bye" (as most kids do) and "milk" which is used for milk, water, the fact that he is thirsty or that someone else is thirsty and is taking a drink. This is a tricky one to catch in a picture though, so we'll keep working on that one. You can click here to see him do it a few months ago. It was his first sign.

Oh, and he blows kisses:

"mmm-bahhh!"

Splashing

We went to the Forks Sunday afternoon to look at the rising red river. It was pretty high. However the most fun was the remnants of the skating rink under the canopy. It was wide and shallow and perfect for splashing. Joy was had.

puddles = joy

Wet pants do not dampen spirits.


Massive puddle ripe for splashing.

Not sure if this was some sort of indication of success in a particular
accomplishment or just general approval of the situation.


Watching a train. Very exciting.

Viewing the flooding with mom.

Flood. Got it. Lots of water. Other priorities now dad.

And New Baby Makes Four!

We are very excited to introduce the newest little Gerhard.
Stay tuned for more details about the end of July!


A profile shot at 12 weeks.


Relaxing with his/her feet up.


Looks really comfy in there!

A profile shot at 22 weeks.

A view of the little face. You can just see a nose and a mouth.

Two little feet.

16 Months

Our little boy is getting big! Sunday was his 16 month birthday. Here is the photo.

Puddles

Spring, rubber boots, little boys. Need we say more.

Rubber Boots

Spring is coming to our city, we're sure of it. Or at least we are really, really hoping for it. The temperatures have been going back and forth between warmish enough to cause melting to freezing all the melted water into skating rinks. On this day, it was kind of chilly, but yet, raining. Ahh...only in Winnipeg.

So we have puddles. Lakes actually. In fact, one lake is large enough that it flooded into our garage and the aforementioned below zero temperatures froze everything in there solidly to the concrete floor.....but that is another story.

So we have puddles. And in preparation for this, I got Matthew his first pair of rubber boots. As it turns out, little person rubber boots are really the cutest things in the world. They're so little! So on this "lovely" spring day, we headed out to play in the puddles while Daddy tried to release the contents of the garage.




I think Matthew had fun. He thought the water around his feet was kind of interesting and kept wanting to go back into the puddles. Perhaps he will have more fun when there isn't sheer ice under all the water and he will be able to move more freely without Mom's hand. But I'm sure there will be lots more time to play in this spring. This is only the beginning...