Talking more

When we went to the pediatrician's, before the doctor came in the nurse sat down with us and ran through her developmental checklist. Is he running? Dressing himself? How much is he talking--two-word sentences, three-word sentences, or can he use full sentences to tell a story?

I said three-word sentences, and immediatly felt a twinge of guilt. Do the three-word sentences count if they all involve "I don't want it!" or the word "no!" twice? Probably not.

Barak, apparently, picked up on my uneasy conscience and attempted to assuage it by promptly coming up with three-word sentences. This morning, we all went for bagels, and I made the mistake of handing Barak part of a hot bagel before the eggs were ready. He had lots of fun with the bagel ("Hot! Bagel hot!") and had no interest in the eggs once they showed up. He looked at them with a wrinkled nose. "I don't want it," he said. "Okay, if you don't want it, say, 'No thank you.'" "No thank you." "Okay," I said, and left it at that. But Barak wanted to be even more clear. He pushed his plate over to MHH, and said, very clearly, "Abba eat it." Wow.

And this afternoon, he woke up cranky from his nap, and didn't want to use the potty--since his crib was wet, and I didn't think it was so pressing, I let it go and put him in his high chair for snack. He was grumpy, and trying to tell me something I didn't understand. "Cold!" he seemed to be saying, holding his juice. "Is your juice cold from the fridge?" I asked. "NO!" he said, irritated. "I said COAT!"

Past tense! He's never done that before.

NEWS FLASH: Halfway though composing this post, I heard shouts of congratulation issuing from the bathroom, where MHH was entertaining Barak on his throne (a four-ounce juice box and six-ounce cup of water/OJ down...). We have poop!

They're in the kitchen eating their ice cream now. As of day 7, we've got 5 successes and 2 misses on this front. Not too bad.