Blue's Clues

Brian's new obsession is the TV show "Blue's Clues". He asks to watch it at least 5 times a day (we only let him watch 1 hour of TV a day). If I would let him (I almost never do), he would sit and watch a full hour (2 episodes) without getting bored or distracted - that's how much he loves it. He knows all the songs and even the hand motions they use. We let him watch it one morning because he woke up early and it was on Noggin (the only channel we let him watch). I didn't know it at the time, but he was falling in love. The next day when he woke up in the morning he said "Blue's Clues" and even made the same hand motions that they make on the show when they say "Blue's Clues". I was pretty impressed. He has gotten to the point now that he will say all the words with the host such as "A clue!" and "Notebook!". It's pretty cute. I bought him a few VHS tapes of "Blue's Clues" for really cheap and we also have some episodes of it on our 'on demand' TV. I think he has seen all of them 10 times each, I know I have.

On another note related to TV... One of my new favorite things is getting up in the morning and Brian snuggling with me while he watches "Blue's Clues". It's 30 minutes in the day when he is still and snuggly. He isn't a very lovey-dovey kind of boy, but lately he would much rather be in my lap watching TV than just sitting next to me. He will even grab my arms and wrap them around himself (so cute!). Sometimes he will pat my leg or rub my arms while we are watching TV. I love it. On rare days that I am home during the week when he goes down for a nap we will usually do the same thing before nap-time (to wind down). My two new favorite times of the day.

Teeth

Brian has always been a little late on getting those teeth (I'm not complaining!), but I think we are about to see several more sprout out in his mouth. When he gets teeth it seems like he always gets them in multiples and that they take forever to come all the way in. Right now he has two top molars (one on each side) that are just barely breaking through the gum line. I am pretty sure he is working on the two matching molars on the bottom and possibly the two bottom teeth next to the two he already has. It seems like these teeth have been coming in since early February or late January. I know that the top molars have been close for a while because the pediatrician noted it when we were in the office for his 15 month check-up. Poor guy has had some pretty miserable days, but for the most part has been awesome about it all.

So, just for the record, at 17 months Brian officially has his 4 middle top teeth and 2 middle bottom teeth. (Minus the 2 barely out molars on the top).

No More Pacifiers

I've been working toward getting rid of the pacifier for quite some time now. Quite a while back we got it down to where Brian only got a pacifier if he was in bed or in his car seat. In early February, I took it away while he was in the car seat so he only got it in bed. In late February I took all the pacifiers away except one. I knew I needed to just get rid of them all together but was internally struggling with taking away the ONE material thing my son loved and counted on for soothing himself. I was worried about him self-soothing and about my sanity without a pacifier. One week ago (March 2) I got determined and took Brian's pacifier away for good. Jason and I were all geared up for a long night awake reassuring Brian only to be surprised by the fact that Brian went straight to sleep, slept through the night, and even slept an hour later the next morning. I was astounded! I had never heard of such an easy transition. Surely nap time would be a struggle - nope. Again, Brian went straight to sleep and slept a normal nap length. No way! I kept thinking it must be a fluke, but he has been doing fine since then and hasn't once asked for his pacifier. He amazes me everyday.

Shapes

So Brian has been very interested in shapes lately. He can correctly identify star and moon (they were his first) and also heart. He can also say those names very well and names the shapes corectly when asked what they are. He knows all the others - circle, oval, square, rectangle, and triangle but he doesn't always say the right name if you ask him. I can ask him to find the triangle and he will correctly pick up the triangle out of all the shapes almost every time, but if I show him the triangle and ask him what it is he says circle. I think that is mostly out of not being to say the names very well. It's pretty cool. He will look for shapes in everyday things and point them out to me. He's such a cool boy.

What did you say?

Just for record keeping sake I have decided to compile a list of some of the words Brian says the most.

Mama
Dada
Nana
Papa
Mimi (more like Mima)
Pops
Janelle (Na-nelle)
Ryan (Ry)
Elmo
Big Bird
Bye-Bye
Go
More
Car
Truck (more like truh)
Airplane
Helicopter
Key
Bang
Boom
Whoa
Moo
Baa
Neigh
Cock-a-Doodle-Doo
Who-who (an owl)
Roar
Oh-oh (a monkey)
Woof
Meow (he doesn't really say the 'e' sound)
Quack
Duck (sounds a lot like quack)
Firetruck (not exactly pronounced correctly, but close enough)
Night-night (more like nigh nigh)
Moon
Star (sounds more like scar)
Circle (somehow there is a 'g' when he says it)
Oval
Heart
Boo
Light (sounds like lie with an 'h' on the end)
Brian (more like Bri)
Eye
Nose
Mouth
Teeth (more like tee)
Bath
On
Off
In
Out
Up
Down
Open
Close
Color
Help (always whiny and always sounds like Ha or Hal)
All-done (he signs this and mumbles/grunts the syllables)
Again (this one he signs and just makes a 'g' sound without ever opening his mouth)
Please (sounds like pea sometimes with the 's' on the end)
Thank you (he signs it and grunts the syllables)
Hi (this is what a farmer says)
Hot (more like Ha)
Cold
Eat (more like eee, but in a very high pitched voice usually)
Cracker (sounds like cacker)
Milk (this one is weird - he calls it nee)
Drink (sounds like Dree)
TV (not one I am happy about)
Yes
No (luckily he has not used this word in defiance to us yet)

I'm sure there are several others, but those are the ones he uses the most. He seems to leave off the last letter of most words and there are still several consonants that he rarely says. He has also reached a point where he will try his very best to repeat a word you say to him. His vocabulary is growing daily. It's so fun to see him learn new words and then use them to communicate with us.





Here is a short list of the words that Brian can sign well and signs often. Most of these words he can also say and usually when he really wants something he will both sign and say the word.

Eat
Drink
More
All-done
Please
Thank-you
Bath
Help
Again
Sleep
Love





Something else that Brian has started to do is become obsessed with the alphabet. We got him some alphabet magnets, alphabet bath "stickers", and an alphabet puzzle for Christmas. He loves the alphabet song and asks us to sing it to him all the time. He also asks to take a bath more now because he wants to play with his alphabet. As an extension of this new found love of letters he can now recognize letters anywhere. He can't tell us what letter it is specifically yet (except for 'O') but he knows what letters are. When he sees a letter he usually says e e e over and over again. It's pretty awesome. He will point to letters on clothing, on the TV, on anything he sees letters on and gets all excited about it too. We are working with him to try and recognize individual letters, but aren't pushing it too hard right now.





What's a post without a few pictures? Hopefully I haven't posted these before.

This is Brian looking at a fire and saying "Hot"