We are clearly reaching a fun and amazing point in Simon’s development. He’s beginning to use a few recognizable words, and he has obvious favorite songs.
The words first. He’s said “mama” for a while. Despite—or perhaps because of—Matt’s desire to be called “papa”, Simon has settled on “daddy”, which alternatively comes out “da-da”, “da-dee”, or (don’t ask) “ya-gi.” Whichever way, he clearly means Matt when he says it. I know this because I rarely heard it the week Matt was in New York City.
Other words are “light”, which I’ve previously blogged about, and “nein.” When Simon doesn’t want something, he screws up his face, bats away my arm or hand, and yells “Nein! Nein! Nein!”. This clearly means “no.” Whether it’s the result of his German or Yiddish heritage I won’t know until he’s old enough to say “oy vey”. He’s also played with “what” and “baby”, but not enough to add it to our vocabulary list.
Next up, favorite songs. A great favorite is “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” Whenever it plays on his toy piano, he bobs up and down and pumps his arms. This is baby dancing, a form of dancing only slightly less elegant than stiff white guy dancing. Lately we’ve taken advantage of this love by singing “Twinkle, Twinkle” during clothing changes or face washings.
Hilariously, Simon is also a fan of Radiohead. Friends Kaya and Kelley sent us a copy of Rockaby Baby Radiohead when Simon was born, and we’ve played it a lot. Just yesterday Matt watched Radiohead perform on TV and was somewhat surprised to see Simon get very animated when “No Surprises” came on. Then it dawned on him that Simon knows this song from its lullaby version. Funny stuff!
These are fun times in our house. The only thing I wonder is when Simon will stop working on fine motor, social, and language skills and START working on things like pulling up, standing, cruising, or walking? In his preferences and developmental strengths, he’s so like Matt and me that it hurts!*
* He’s more like me than I realized when I first typed this. My mom called a bit ago to tell me that she got out my baby book and read that I was scooting on my butt by 10 ½ months and began to walk at 15 months.