it pays to be alone with mommy

with the three bigs at vbs and daddy at golf, it was just manning and i for a few hours. we picked up some dinner and then i let this special boy have an ice cream cone before a long bath with the whole tub to himself (all three are very rare treats!). he was just in heaven. i love this little guy. 

i took the video for two reasons, the first, because he is just too cute and the second to show some of his speech. this is actually fairly clear speech for him. such a happy guy. love.

more "cheese"

when we went to manning's 15 month check-up they asked if he is riding on toys yet.  um...  yeah, we haven't even tried.  so i, of course, ran home and got out all of the riding toys and let him have at it.  for the record, he can 'ride' toys.  i was trying to get some video of his scooting skills but he just kept saying "cheese"until i actually wanted a video of him saying "cheese".  and that is his lovey and his thumb.  i have to hide the lovey during the day to try and limit the thumb time.  love.

funny kid

one quick story about maddux that i meant to post in our return home story.  maddux has a sense of direction like his dad, he remembers how places relate to each other very well.  anyway, on our way home early sunday morning we swung by the library to return all of the movies (they had given me an extended check-out since we were on vacation - nice, right?).  we drove by papa john's and maddux, who had been asleep up until this point, quietly said, "pizza".  matt and i totally cracked up!  he always points it out and tells me about the time he, daddy and mason went to pick up our pizzas.  and we drive past this place a lot.  but it was just so funny at 2:30am from a sleeping boy.  love.

what does a lion say?

manning will make a cross between a "roar" and a growl when asked what a lion says.  it is pretty cute and he is very consistent with it being correctly used for a lion.

this reminds me that he points to the adult male in books and says "dada" almost every time.  and he gives very good high fives (meaning he gets a sound on contact).  love

"i did it!"

and manning has his first sentence!  he has been in super development mode lately.  he has always been very chatty (and loud) but he has really been starting to say more and more 'words' in the past week.  i think i need to start paying attention because i bet i have been ignoring the bulk of them by just writing them off as gibberish.  but there was no denying this one!  and a full sentence at that.  i was just trying to get him pushing the button on his toy and lucked into this...

he has also started 'cruising' from one item to another.  for someone who has barely been interested in baring weight on his legs, he sure is moving and shaking!  he has also started peeking through his legs (a la downward dog) and rolling on the ground for fun.  we call him the "rolly-polly.

i am sure there are lots more videos to come.  love.

like daddy

on the drive to school this week, mason said, "i want to be a daddy just like daddy when i grow up."  there isn't any higher praise. love.

first words

we are going to go with "da-da" as manning's first word. while he says it frequently, he gets more excited and animated when he says it while looking at matt. he now appears to know that matt is "da-da". i think sunday was the first time we noticed this association.

while i was changing his diaper on monday morning, madelyn was asking him to say "sissy" and he did! he said, "sis" (pause) "see", while looking at her with the same excitement he says "da-da" to matt. we are counting that as word number two. madelyn was pretty excited too.

and today he assigned "ma-ma" to me at last! this was one of his early sounds, but he hasn't been saying it as much lately (much to my dismay). i love (hate) when they can start calling for me by name.

he is also starting to attempt signing "all done" after us. he has actually made gestures for a while but they are starting to look for like the sign now and he sounds like he is saying it several times. manning is also starting to wave back to us for "hello" and "good-bye" and i am starting to see attempts at the "more" sign. he gets very excited when we understand his "all done" attempts.

man, i have been slacking on posting about his communication! love.

random maddux videos

these are both videos of maddux from last month.  i have been having a horrible time getting videos to upload through blogger and have started posting them to youtube first because it is much faster. 

here is maddux 'reading' to manning and daddy...

i just love the way maddux says "mason" right now and had to get some video.  you can also see how much he likes the new pillows i made for the couch...

love.

another book lover

manning loves books - to eat!  he only crawls to get to books so that he can maul them.  we have had to put a moratorium on books being left on the ground after losing a few small ones to his slobbery attempts to consume them. 

but he sure is cute.

the video is an attempt at catching him being chatty.  he sort of froze up when i got the camera and doesn't vary his 'words' as much as he normally does but it does show how he loves to have his mouth open and noisy.  love.

look at the size of his hand!

manning at 8 months

he rang in month number 8 with an ear infection. but not in the ear he has been rubbing that prompted us to take him in. even the doctor was a little surprised that he had one - no fever, no runny nose, no resistance to having her check, just all smiles. she said that it might have just been delayed from the cold he had a few weeks ago. this is his first one. he weighed 28lbs.

but really i just wanted to post a little about manning...

- he is super ticklish on his chest and neck. he cracks up when we pull his clothes off (not so much when we are getting him dressed).

- he is really getting mobile. most of it is belly to sitting kind of moving. he does hop a little on his knees but no real attempts at actual crawling. i always knew that madelyn did things early but it is amazing looking back as we have had the boys (madelyn - february 2008)

- manning looks a lot like madelyn but is build more like mason.

- he is a chatterbox (where did matt and i get all of these talkers?) - "ma-ma", "da-da", "ni", "ba-ba", "na", "ya-ya", "hi", "ha-ha", "yah"

- he thinks it is hysterical when his brothers cry.

- he and maddux seem to have a pretty special bond. maybe they understand each other.

- he is the only one of the kids at this age who goes down with no books, nursing or crying and wakes up happy most of the time.

manning is a very happy and easy going kid. we really ended with a great one! we can't wait for him to get moving. love.

 

chatting with manning

here is just a small taste of what it is like to chat with manning.  he loves to talk.  love.

happy monkey

manning has pretty much replaced screaming with laughing and 'chatter'.  he is a very friendly boy with lots (and lots) to say.  love.

the talker

all of the kids like to talk. and i always thought that madelyn was our 'talker', but, really, it is mason. where madelyn and maddux ask a lot of questions, mason is mainly narrative monologue (not that he doesn't ask a lot of questions too). he can definitely talk longer than i can listen. he seriously talked to me for an hour straight while i made dinner this week. it has gotten to the point where i have had to ask him to stop talking because i don't know what he is talking about! (i explained that as soon as dinner was ready he could finish telling his story because i could listen better.) he jumps back and forth between real and imaginary ("my house with the blue door") that his stories can be difficult to follow even when giving him all of my attention. but throw in reading a recipe and cooking and I very quickly lose track of his narrative.

i can only hope that he always wants to share his thoughts with us. love.

 

manning gets chatty

manning is doing stuff too.  he is getting to be quite the chatter box (when he is full anyway), getting pretty good at getting his thumb when he is in the crib and tummy time.  he doesn't really mind tummy time, i just forget to let him do it when we are home and not on the go (the floor can be a dangerous place around here).

i noticed that he was just talking away while i was working on the computer so here is a little for your listening pleasure. love.

maddux speaks

i have mentioned several times how effective maddux is communicating without words.  but he does speak.  here he is playing my "say..." game.  he isn't as clear with his speech as normal in the videos but at least he is getting to where someone other than me can understand him.  this is the a small sampling of what he sounds like. love.

good morning from manning

i am trying to make up for not taking enough pictures of manning to post (other than him sleeping in the carrier everywhere we go).  here is some 'happy talk' from him this morning.  he is really starting to babble with "ah-goo" and "coo" along with screaches and other happy noises.  i love the first noises. love.

maddux speaks

maddux is accumulating spoken words and i wanted to jot a few down here: dada, mama, ball, dog, teeth, yes, all done (not totally clear but definitely what he is saying), choo-choo, vroom, brrroom (the car noise), sis (for madelyn) and i am sure that there are one or two i am forgetting.  he seems to be adding every day.  and he is the first one that didn't do any signing.  mainly because i forget in the rush of waiting on everyone else during meals.  we have been working on it more, so he might sign yet.  love.

synonyms

mason has started saying synonyms for what i am not understanding.  when i am just not understanding him, he pauses, looks up to the right (like when thinking) and says a different word that comes close enough to the same idea to try and help me.

i have noticed it several times over the past few days, but here is an example from tonight.  we were trying to guess what he was saying during dinner and it sounded a little like "rash".  after a while he did his thoughtful pause and then said "all done" (with the sign too).  oh - "trash"! (and i should have known this because this was one of his early words - it just didn't fit the conversation we were having.) now it made sense!  he was talking about how the cracker sleeve wrapper on the table was trash.  i am so glad that he can find a way to come down to our level of reasoning...  love.

maddux takes steps!

maddux surprised me by taking his first steps today!  and even better he took the most steps in a row - three - walking to daddy when he got home from work!  i couldn't get a video myself so i had madelyn film...

this about the same time as madelyn and a little earlier than mason.  and when i went to look at when the other two took their first steps i came across madelyn saying "dog" at this age.  and i have to tell you that i been thinking that maddux has been saying "dog" when he points at maggie but thought that i am just crazy and that he is too young - nope, he is saying "dog"!  i need to pay closer attention.  love.

first love

mason and i were being snugly.  i gave him a kiss and said "i love you".  he said "i lub oo" and gave me one of his super sweet, gentle kisses.  totally made my day!  love.