At 3.5 months, Damien began using the “mama” sound, his first solid babble after general cooing and the “aahhh” sound. Sometime in the last month, he stopped using the “mama” sound as a repetitive babble and instead used it as a word. It became a single “mama” or “mum” instead, and is now almost exclusively used when he wants me for something – he uses other sounds for babbling.
You’re most likely to hear Damien call for Mama if he’s upset – if he’s hurt or super tired or generally mad about something (like being in the carseat for too long).
While I know they say not to compare your kids, it’s kind of cool to watch Damien develop his language in such a different way. Although I swore I heard Aiden say words from time to time, he was very inconsistent in using them consistently. It was not until he had many words that he started to use them all the time.
Also, I’m pretty pleased that Damien said the Mama sound before the Dada one ;)
So far, that’s his only “word”, though I think he may be calling our cat Nala by the phrase “Nana”, but I’m not as sure on that one.
Aiden has been having a great summer, particularly this last month of glorious weather. We spend endless hours playing outside our house in the alley with all the neighbourhood kids. Although I often lament about not having a yard, I know he’s getting something far better through his interaction with all those kids. The kids are all older than him (youngest is 5, eldest is almost 12), but they all dote on him and are more than happy to drop whatever they are doing to play with him or teach him things. It’s truly amazing. His current favourite activities with them are playing tennis or hide & seek.
Weight 29.5 lbs (apparently last month was an erroneous reading! Still no change in 10 months)
Wears 3T tops and pants (finally put away all but the very-largest of the 2T clothes)
Wants to know the names of the streets we are driving on. Has recall for many of them (St Georges, Lonsdale Avenue, Keith, Grand Boulevard)
Loves looking at street maps
Asks the names of street signs & store names: “What’s that store? What does that spell?”
Wants to know the first letter of a word he hears: “What’s that start with?”
Has renewed interest in the alphabet. Has improved his recall again, only confused now on 3 letters
Wants to know what things are made of. A common question this month has been “What is XX made of?” He’s asked about houses, cars, cardboard, water, most things he’s holding
Is interested in how things are built. Enjoys likening things to skeletons (a house frame is like a skeleton)
Loves to pretend to crash and fall. People must think he’s quite clumsy!
Wants to climb in and out of his carseat every time; has learned to close his own car door.
Loves to hug and say “I love you SO much” to family and friends. Very huggy month.
Has mastered his “L” sounds – they are over-enunciated right now
Began calling Damien incorrectly – was saying Damiend; we don’t know if he got confused or was doing a nickname. May have come from my little Damien songs where I repeat his name to a tune (the D would thus restart after his name)
His favourite phrases: I can do it by myself, I can’t do it, you want to read this together, never mind, I don’t like this, where are we going today
My favourite phrases of his: I did it all by myself, I love you SO much, my tummy is so full, yellow (said more like yeLL-Low)
I’m trying to cherish the very last of the baby words that Aiden has left. Some of them are just too adorable not to enjoy. My favourite baby word is “heckacarpet” for “helicopter”, close behind “walkaroni” for “macaroni”, so I captured it on video before it disappeared completely:
I haven’t made any effort to correct how Aiden says helicopter. For the most part, he self-corrects on his pronunciation. In some cases, he chooses to stick to his baby words for unknown reasons: “baa baa” for sheep or “manana” for banana. I know for sure he can say both words correctly, and yet they remain baby words.
Ever since Aiden could say the names of those people around him, we tried to make a conscious effort to stop speaking in the third person. Instead of saying “Mommy’s chair,” we would say “This is my chair.” People don’t normally talk in the third person, and learning personal pronouns is a big achievement for toddlers.
Aiden walking to StrongStart with Elizabeth this morning
Although Aiden’s vocabulary is well into hundreds of words now, he is just starting to show an interest in personal pronouns. Most things are still “Aiden’s” or “Mommy’s”, but he will now use phrases that include “my” and “mine” and at least attempts to use the word “you”, but does so in place of when he should say “me.”
For example, Aiden will stay “Mommy, pick you up”. Technically he’s repeating what I would say back to him, “I’ll pick you up” or more often a negation of that.
Although Aiden is still muddled about the use of personal pronouns, he is quite intuitive about using the plural of a word or changing words into past tense or using -ing words. It’s quite neat to see how their little brains can just pick all this stuff up!
I realized a couple of weeks ago that some of Aiden’s baby words are starting to disappear already. It’s kind of bittersweet. While some words continue to sound a little babyish (particularly those with the letter L), mostly he enunciates quite well. The words that have gone away have been some of his made-up words.
Best bud Zayden is no longer referred to as “Nee-na”, toast is no longer “dee-da,” and though I used to fret that Aiden would be four and saying it, “boo-wow” no longer exists. It may have been gone for weeks before I finally noticed.
This is just the latest in a string of baby words and motions that have slowly disappeared. The only baby sign Aiden uses now is with his ‘please’, for example, and he never participates in kids songs, though he must know at least a dozen of them with motions. I don’t know if he’s doing this because I want him to participate or just because he doesn’t feel like it.
It’s kind of sad watching my little baby growing up so quickly!
Aiden walking to StrongStart with Elizabeth this morning