Tonight Simon laughed for the first time… I think.
I was over at Mom’s while Matt’s band practiced, and sometime between dinner and dessert mom leaned over his Papasan seat (he was our centerpiece at the table) and made a funny face at him. Simon went wild. His eyes opened wide, and his dimples deepened. Then he opened his mouth and make a sort of yelling noise. Not quite a “ha!”, but close.
So this might just be the laugh I’ve been waiting for. Whatever it was, it was certainly delightful. In fact, Simon himself has been delightful for six straight days. We’re getting all kinds of smiles from him, he’s falling asleep faster and staying asleep longer, and he’s babbling like mad. Favorite “words” are “M-be” and “Uga”. Last night he put together a crazy string of vowels and vowel-consonant combinations that imitated speech to hilarious effect.
For the record, if we do end up with an early talker it will not be because of the Goldstein genes. While most of us can absolutely talk you to death, we were all late getting started. So late that my mom worried my brother Steve might be slightly mentally challenged. Nope, it’s Simon’s introverted dad who got an early start gabbing. If Simon ends up with my affinity for talking coupled with Matt’s ability, we will one day have the most exhausting two-year-old ever. But I’m getting ahead of myself with that one.
Simon’s other new habits, documented here in the blog and in the photo gallery, include enjoying morning naps in our bed and being propped up in chairs to better see the world around him. All in all, as his fourth trimester comes to a close, Simon has become more engaged with the world around him.
This trend is so much fun that even though Simon turns three months tomorrow, I’m not feeling misty about lost time. I’m just looking forward to the developments ahead.
Ah, you’re entering the Golden Age of Babyhood…between the time they first start learning to talk and when they learn to say No! .
I think I agree with you about early talkers. My oldest son David didn’t talk at all until he was about 15 months old and then he talked in sentences. Seems that he had been practicing when no one was around. However, once he started, he never shut up .
Ian, however, ALWAYS talked….it just became clearer. Even when it sounded like babbling, it was obvious that he was trying to say something. He even made jokes. He would be sitting in his car seat making incomprehensible sounds while I drove. But if I turned to look at him, he would break out in laughter, like he had just said the funniest thing in the world and couldn’t help laughing at his own joke.