Linnaeus 16.3

Sprout enjoys a little German gingerbread
(Pfeffernuesse)

Well, Christmas has come & gone. We didn't get all the way through my list of things to do, but we hit the most important stuff. I even found Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on Youtube & Sprout watched it with me. He actually sat on my lap & watched all 45 minutes of it, with just a short break in the middle. Sprout had his first big Christmas dinner, or first where he was awake & eating, anyway. He scarfed down turkey with gravy, sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, corn, apple pie & shortbread. He had quite the feed, but then again, he eats like that daily. He also seems to really love battered fish the last few times he's had it. Though he prefers yams to potatoes at the moment, he'd be pretty happy at a fish & chips restaurant, I think.

Sprout's latest fun little habit is kissing. He's actually figured out the general form & doesn't open his mouth (much), even poking his little lips out. He will sometimes kiss me on demand & clearly understands the word, though he doesn't say it yet. He makes his little stuffed animals kiss each other when playing by himself, or kisses them himself. He sometimes holds them up to me to kiss which is unbelievably adorable. Stuffies continue to be his favourite toys & since Christmas he now has even more, including a Monchhichi that was mine when I was little.

Something else that's been happening on & off a lot lately is very late naps. We don't have a strict schedule for meals & don't usually just put Sprout to sleep at a specific time, whether for naps or bedtime. Generally, when we get a signal that he's tired, we'll put him down for a nap. This used to work & most days he'd be out by 1:30 or 2pm. These days, a lot of the time, he isn't falling asleep until after 3 or 4, which makes him less likely to want to go to bed before 9pm. His naps are quite consistent in length, at least--usually 2-2.5 hours every time.

Watching his personality emerge as he starts to communicate more with us is amazing. All told, I think he spends at least an hour a day pointing at things & asking about them. I typically name whatever it is he's drawing attention to & he's starting to repeat the words back sometimes. He doesn't necessarily use them, though he parrot them back, but he's getting much better at hearing a sound & copying it so he's more understandable.

The past week or so I finally figured out one of the things he was pointing to in the kitchen all this time: the radio. It's on a shelf with all our tea, so I couldn't figure out why he'd be pointing at the boxes & tins of tea. He wanted me to turn on the music. He'll dance & sometimes even sing along when I switch it on.

This week's new words are faaa (fan), hat, tah (guitar),  kuk (clock) & baby. There are a few more things he's been saying that I'm not quite sure of yet--I think he might be saying bird, but it sounds a lot like his word for bear. He babbles constantly, repeating nonsense syllables or words over & over. I've also started a new page on this blog (see the right side of the header bar above the posts on the main page) to keep track of his vocabulary.