This morning, I was awakened by "up. Up. UP. UPUPUP. BABA. BABA." and when I stumbled in to B's room, baba in hand (yeah, don't ask about breaking up with the bottle), I was greeted with "Hi. Mommy."
Then later there was "book" "shoe" and "out" (that's "let's go outside for our walk already") and "cracker" about 100 times until someone got a bunny cracker.
I feel like the crazy "my child is talking even though no one can understand him" mom, but, really, I don't think I am making this up. Really. Even my husband agrees he is actually talking, and since he usually is the one who accuses me of making sh*t up, I am actually convinced that I am not just "that mom" and that we really do have communication.
What's awesome is that it makes it so much easier to avoid frustration and (newly-arrived and not very welcome, thank you very much) tantrums. Because when he gets frustrated or whiney, we either try to lead him with a word that might be what he wants, or tell him he can ask for things by saying "help please" instead of yelling or whining. And you know what? That works! (It comes out like "hep peas" and is beyond adorable.) It doesn't keep him from getting upset when I take something away that he wants (i.e., the plug to his humidifier, which is clearly more fascinating than his room full of toys) but I think it has already cut down the frustration by more than half.
And for me? Now it's like having a real person in the room. One that knows that he should say "eat" or "apple" when he's hungry and "cup" when he wants something to drink. And it's remarkable to see what he picks up every day. The pace of change is just astounding.
I think because the walking and the talking have both really kicked in at the same time, and because he is just so big (he wears size 2T already) I feel like we have a real toddler in our house. Of course, I am now totally nostalgic for the tiny baby with his little fists and snuffly noises, but this new phase is amazing to watch and it could not be more fun.