Backseat Driver

Liam is a terrible backseat driver...or maybe a great future navigator! Every time we're in the car he always points and says "Go dat way!" Which, of course, is the opposite way we're headed. When I try to explain to him why we're headed the right way he says, "NO! Dat way!" He even remembers some of his favorite things that are the direction he wants to go, namely Mail Trucks.

Last week, we were headed up the highway on an errand. That errand happened to take us past our usual exit to home. Liam pointed to the exit excitedly and yelled, "NO Mama, HOME!!" Later that week, on our way to school, we passed an exit and he said, "go dat way!" I said, "Liam, we can't go that way, we're going to school. School isn't that way." He then replied, "go zoo!" That exit is the way to the zoo!!! How does he know that?!?

Talking

I just can't get over how quickly Liam is learning to talk. Now even strangers can pick up some of the words he says. A friend and I were marveling at the ability of our 2ish-year-olds to learn words so quickly. We were also mourning the loss of baby talk. Some of my favorite baby talk words that have been replaced by grown-up words include: Mama and Dada - now Mommy and Daddy; and neigh neighs and baa-baas - now horse and sheep. He does still call a seahorse a "ee-orse" in a strange nasally voice. Not sure how that happened.

Last week I was awestruck when Liam was able to tell me about an incident at school and that his tummy hurt. Liam was bit by another child at school one day and Liam told me all about it in the car on the way home. He even named the perpetrator! His first tattle! He also told us over dinner one night that his tummy hurt - which should have been fair warning for the clean-up we had to do later that night. It really is amazing how his language, memory and self awareness are developing!

Nose

Liam and I were looking at pictures of animals the yesterday (of course) and I started telling him about noses - elephants have long noses, bird noses are called beaks, etc. A little later in the day, Liam saw me getting a tissue and he points to my face and says 'noos.'

He's obsessed with naming things these days. Every time we read "Good Night Moon" he has to find the mouse ('mm-ow') in every picture. When we sit an eat, he points to his drink and then mine. He's not satisfied until I say "Mommy's drink" and "Liam's drink" repeatedly.

Whoa

Liam is going to be 16 months old next week. He's already smarter than us. We're in big trouble. A few stories...

Liam has a favorite book with pictures of animals. He can identify most of them when asked (even a chinchilla!?!) and point many out unprompted. He knows almost all the animal sounds, at least the ones Mommy knows. I have no idea what sound a guinea pig makes. He's now to the point where he matches pictures. If he finds the picture of the elephant on the Zoo Animal page, he then closes the book and can locate the same picture on the cover of the book.

Yesterday I was carrying Liam as I was trying to get us out the door for school/work. He kept pointing to our catch-all table and saying 'wa-wa.' I had no idea what he was asking for. After repeated grumpy refusals of the items I offered, he finally leaned over to the table, reached in my purse and took out my WALLET! What!?!

I already told the story of how Liam identifies the steel-deck bridge we drive over every day. As soon as he sees the bridge he yells out "bri! bri!" and then starts to hum - the sound the tires make over the steel deck. The other day we crossed a different, non-humming bridge, and Liam went through his same routine. I was surprised he could identify it as a bridge and categorize it as such. A few weeks ago, we drove past an area owned by the electric company where the transformers (I guess) and such are kept in a structure of steel. Liam spotted it and yelled "bri! bri!" I hadn't even noticed how similar those structures were to the bridge!

We're pretty much at the point where Liam hears a word once or twice and can understand its meaning and will try to repeat it. He could name almost everything he had for dinner tonight as well as ask for something he wanted that we didn't offer.

HOT!

This morning, as I was washing Liam's hands for breakfast, the water from the tap started getting a little warmer. Liam pulled his hand out and yelled "ot! ot!" We've been talking about 'hot' for a few weeks now, and he was connecting the word to steam coming from pots on the stove but hadn't shown an understanding of temperature until this morning. Pretty smart!