Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Baby Ben, Wordsmith

Wow, do I love being Baby Ben's mom! It is a delight. I keep wanting each stage to last, thinking it's the very best one, but then when the next one comes I like it even better! Actually, I seem to remember that happening when George was a baby, too....

The newborn phase was just extraordinary--as I've mentioned, I was better able to enjoy it the second time around for a whole slew of reasons, including that I was less overwhelmed and knew what I was doing this time. But as amazing as that was, it keeps getting better :-)

Now he's six months, and is going to town with language, which is particularly fun. He was a super-early talker, saying "Mama" and sometimes "Mom" at 3 1/2 months, though he only ever says it when he's hungry. But it's been quite consistent. The first time he said it, he was with Lindsey in the living room and I was in the kitchen. He said it very loudly and very clearly. It stopped both Lindsey and me in our tracks! Anyway, it's very handy, because as I said, he only says it when he's hungry, so that narrows it right down for us. Although I should add that one time in the car recently he was fussing for "Mama" and we tried popping in one of his country music CDs (his new favorite is the soundtrack for "O Brother, Where Art Thou"). He stopped fussing *immediately*. I mean, like, within the first note or two. So we've decided that "Mama" means not only "I'm ready for some milk" but also "Please crank up the country music."

We thought for sure, given how very much he adores Bob, that his next word would be "Dada" or "Dad", and it *sort* of was, but he really hasn't said it with any consistency. (He has said it maybe 5 times or so.) We theorize that this is because Bob is pretty much always by his side, so he has very little reason to have to call out to him to get his attention! In any case, he does have very effective ways of getting Bob's attention from nearby: he will bat his arms at Bob until Bob turns to him, and then he'll give Bob what we call "The Look". It's a look that says "Dad, I want to snuggle into your chest, and I want this more than anything in the whole world, so please don't even try to resist; just pick me up right now 'cuz who are we kidding--we both know you're going to." It's equal parts love, longing, and the knowledge that the longing is about to be satisfied. He has done this combination of inching himself over to Bob, batting him, and giving him The Look pretty much since the day we brought him home from the hospital.

I guess his next word was "hi", which he started saying last month. He says it when he's trying to get our attention, like when he wakes up next to me and I'm still sleeping, or if I'm on my laptop and he's ready for me to turn my attention to him. The utterance of "hi" is often accompanied by one of his trademark smiles (more about those in a minute). One particularly funny time when he said it was at Campfire, when one of the homeschool moms was playing peek-a-boo with him in his stroller when I had gone out of the room for a second to take a phone call. When I came back in, she said, "I could swear he just said hi to me!!" Yep!

His next word was "baby", though he doesn't say it with a lot of consistency yet, either. He does this thing, though, when I'm saying a word to him, where he looks so intently at my mouth, and you can almost see the wheels turning as he's taking it all in, and then he starts moving his mouth in imitation, first without vocalizing, just making the motion with his mouth and then with his tongue, and then he'll sort of whisper it, and then he'll finally vocalize. Then he'll keep practicing just making the motion with his mouth and doing an almost silent whisper. It's pretty cool to watch! To see the learning in action like that. Probably my favorite ever moments as a teacher. Anyway, as I said, he doesn't say it with much consistency and it's mostly repeating after us when we say it to him. Though one morning he woke us up by practicing: "Ba-ba-ba-ba-Baby! Ba-ba-ba-ba-Baby!" So now we say that all the time, to him, and about him to each other ("It's a ba-ba-ba-ba-baby!"). Yeah, we're total goners.

Next was "book", which actually comes out as "boo" (not "boo" like what a ghost says. "Boo" like the word "book" without the "k" at the end). It's mostly in response to when we say it to him, repeating it back to us (and oftentimes in that adorable little barely audible whisper), so I'm not sure it really counts yet. He definitely knows what it means, though--boy does he jerk to attention if you ask him if he wants to read a book! He loves, loves, loves book time, which we have every morning (and sometimes again throughout the day, but the morning one is our routine). His favorite books are Pat the Bunny, which he has particularly loved since he was 3 months old; Moo, Baa, La La La (awesome Sanrda Boynton book about the animal sounds); Blue Hat, Green Hat (another Sandra Boynton book that makes him laugh--he especially loves the last page where the dressed-up turkey is diving off the high-dive into the pool; he seems to get that this is funny); Daddy Loves Me (very sweet book about daddies and babies that I gave Bob for Christmas last year, when Baby Ben was still Ace!); and There's a Wocket in my Pocket, by Dr. Seuss (which was one of George's favorites as a baby, which makes it a little extra sweet for me... actually, most of these were George's favorites!). We also usually read Curious George 1 to 10 and Back Again, and he has a few more "touch-and-feel" books that he really enjoys (especially one from his Aunt Becky and another one from his Grandma Jane).

His next word was "Lindsey"--ok, a version thereof, sounding more like "Li". First, let me reiterate how much this boy loves his big sissy. He truly adores her. So, anyway, last month we got him to repeat "Li" a few times. But on Halloween night when we were out trick-or-treating, he started saying, very boldly and loudly, "Li-li-li-li-li!" in a clear attempt to get Lindsey's attention. He did this repeatedly, while we were out and also when we were back home (where it evolved into "Li-li"). He was manifestly extremely pleased with himself when it worked, by the way... which it did, every time, because Lindsey is equally enamored of him, and was mighty pleased herself.

And now, just today, he has come up with his version of George. George came in the room this morning and Ben greeted him with a very excited "Guh!" It was interesting, because it was a hard g, which I don't necessarily think of as being so tied to the soft g sound, but it was unmistakable that Ben was using it to designate George. We repeated "George" to him a bunch of times (and he did that thing where he studies your mouth with that look of concentration and then imitates the movement), and he did soften the g a bit, to a more gurgly kind of sound--alternating the hard g and the gurgly g. We also, in addition to having him repeat the sound when we said it, would point to George and ask Ben, "Who's that?" He said "Guh!" every time. George couldn't have been more delighted!

Another really fun thing about the last month or so has been introducing solid foods (his first one was a lemon wedge, and yes, we captured the hilarity on video), but I think I'll save that for another post.

It's also been great fun seeing his physical advances over the last month, with lots of ever-improving sitting up; standing up while being supported from behind (I mean while he leans ever-so-slightly against someone's legs--Lindsey first figured out that he could do this) or while holding on to something in front of him; and getting around on his back like a little inchworm-doing-the-backstroke. His latest thing is he'll inch across the king-sized bed if Bob isn't in it, in what seems a pretty clear attempt to go off and join his dad wherever he is!

But my favorite thing of all about this baby remains how happy he is. Even when he had a bad bout of teething, where he was crying in pain, we'd look at him and tell him we love him and he'd try to smile back at us through his tears. The sweetest thing!

And while we're on the subject, a little more about his smile.... It's a smile so radiant it could light up a medium-sized city during a power outage. Well, it sure lights us up, anyway. I may have mentioned this already, but we call them "smiles from heaven", because they really do seem almost other-worldly. George, when he was watching him on the couch the other day, put it this way: you could be crying, having the worst day of your life, and if you took one look at Baby Ben and his beaming, happy face, you couldn't help but feel happy yourself! George also added that Ben is just without a care in the world. It's true. He is so full of unfettered joy and innocence and exuberance, and it really is contagious when you're around him.

What a little (huge) blessing he is. And as you can no doubt tell, we're really savoring it.