Now He Can Attend Brock.

Tags

babies, baby sign, child development, English, language, parenting, sign language, speech

Language is important to me.

Aside: Before I posted this, I skimmed it and discovered that I had written:

“Lanugage is important to me”. I’m pretty sure there’s some irony in there.

In case it isn’t obvious that I, THE BLOGGER, love language, let me assure you that

I REALLY REALLY REALLY LOVE LANGUAGE.

It amazes and astounds and amuses me daily. I’ll listen to a random stranger say something to another stranger and totally geek out on how intelligent they are, conveying thoughts with words, and then translating the words of others into thoughts.

Then there are days when “your dog got mites at the pet shop, you should take this vet bill to them” seems too complicated a sentence for people, and I despair for humanity.

But mostly, language delights me.

So I’ve been waiting, waiting, waiting for Owl to get into language. Long before I got pregnant I was watching videos on teaching babies to read, and I totally wanted to teach my baby to read.

Not because I’m a pushy mom, who thinks it’ll help her kids get into a better college. I doubt it’ll give any real head start.

Just because IT’D BE REALLY COOL.

My friend who I’m starting a dog training biz with actually worked under this lady, so she’s going to show me how to teach Beloved Dog to read. I figure we can do Owl at the same time because he is FINALLY ready for language.

It took long enough. 

He started pointing at 8 months, and so I started sign language then, but the only word he picked up was “milk”, and that was a behaviour that I captured with positive reinforcement, not something he picked up through imitation and a desire to communicate.

He did pick up the sign for “ball” shortly before his first birthday, but that was it. Not even a “mama” until after 13 months.

It wasn’t until daycare that he picked up another sign – “more” – (and sadly, it’s the wrong version – the sign for “again” instead of the real sign for “more”, but whatever) and even then, language didn’t start.

My mother assurred me a month or two ago that as soon as Owl began to walk, the talking would start.

BOY was she right.

“Mama” appeared less than a week after he started walking, and now he is learning a sign every couple of days and really TRYING (and failing) to approximate the word sounds.

His sign vocabulary includes: “milk”, “ball”, “more/again”, “dog”, “cat”, “duck”, “frog”, “book”, and “bear” (sort of).

His spoken vocabulary consists of: “mama?” “dada?” “baaaaaa”, “daw?”, “daa”, and “duh”.

Only truly doting parents would understand most of these, but then, we’ve always been eager to interpret his sounds.

Language has begun and I’m SO STOKED. 

Now, if he could just walk AND talk...

I Want To Send More Candy To Those Kids At The End

Tags

Hallowe'en, jokes, pranks, videos

Have you folks seen this yet?

I CANNOT decide what I think about it.

My thoughts go in a spiral like this as I watch this video:

1. What a terrible video. WHY WOULD YOU MAKE YOUR KID CRY LIKE THAT?

2. Cpme to think of it, I can totally see myself or PH casually announcing “by the way, I ate all your candy today. Hope that’s ok,” to Owl in later years when he arrives home from school.

3. The thing is, I am also pretty sure that Owl would get hit by lines like this a lot, and would totally not take us seriously.

4. Especially since Owl should know that we would never be so cruel to him.

5. So maybe the really cruel thing is that these kids don’t TRUST their parents enough, if they actually believe their parents so quickly.

6. Then again, in what world does belief equal distrust? Am I really claiming here that Owl would TRUST us enough to ASSUME that we were LYING?

7. Seriously, how old are some of these kids? After a certain age, tantrums like these are totally unacceptable. I could see arguments, where the kids explain how hard they worked to gather that candy and why it was totally unnacceptable for their parents to steal it…

8. Like this kid. Hey, here’s one with sense. Way to go, kiddo, I like your attitude.

9. Aw, and you’re sweet to your little brother, too! I hope Owl ends up being as smart/arodable as you some day.

10. What a great video.

My biggest problem with this video is that it gives me traumatic flashbacks to an old childhood memory:

We were in line at the grocery store. Hanging on the impulse items rack was THE BIGGEST COOKIE YOU EVER SAW. It was the size of a dinner plate. It was awesome. I wanted it. Of course I wanted it.

And here’s the thing – my mother ACTUALLY SAID I COULD HAVE IT. My mother did not buy me impulse items. Ever. No candy, no sugary cereals. The grocery store was for her boring food purchases, not junk for me.

But this time was different. She said I could put it on the conveyor and I did.

I was bursting with unbelievable joy.

And then? When we got to the cash, the cashier just went and ATE MY COOKIE.

I started to protest and my mother shushed me, pointing out that we hadn’t paid for it yet and it was the cashier’s RIGHT to eat my cookie. So I stood there in horror and watched that terrible woman wolf down MY COOKIE. 

I woke up with tears streaming down my face.

It was one of only three dreams I have ever had in my life that I woke up crying from.

When I tried to share my terrible dream with my mother, I felt that she did not fully appreciate the tragedy therein. She even seemed AMUSED!

Parents are heartless bunch, aren’t they?

So even while I’m laughing at these kids’ melodramatic reactions, I am remembering the four year old who cried over a fictitious cookie.

I also really hate videos of people being cruel to kids for fun.

Videos like this. I hate that video, because the kid did as he was told and was punished for it. That’s terrible.

So why do I find redeeming features in this one?

Well, I guess because I feel like the key to a good practical joke is a happy ending. That’s why it’s fun to tell the kids you’re going to Hawaii without them and then spring a surprise Disneyworld trip on them instead, but it’s NOT fun to tell them they’re going to Disneyworld and then tell them it was a lie.

Assuming that these parents didn’t ACTUALLY eat the candy, these stories all had happy endings, and the kids probably learned a good lesson in getting dramatic over something before you have checked all the facts.