Quick update: communication

It's a lot of fun to watch Carter's personality start to emerge these days. The more he communicates, the more we see it. I'm really glad we stuck with the sign language now, because it's seriously paying off. Carter generally signs and speaks simultaneously, but the accompanying sign means that those vague-sounding toddler words are completely understood. There's very little frustration around communication issues, which is a big deal for non-signing toddlers of this age, from what I gather from listening to other parents.

Every morning I ask him what he wants for breakfast, and he runs over to his tower, giggling. He usually doesn't respond until I offer choices, like cereal, fruit, eggs, yogurt, etc. But this morning, as soon as I asked, he said "pizza!" We had pizza for dinner two nights ago and happened to have one more piece left in the fridge, so I heated it up for him and that's what he had for breakfast! He also had some fruit, but it was funny that he had a specific request this morning, for the first time ever.

It's fun to see his sense of humor start to come out too. This morning he was wandering around the kitchen making a horrendous shrieking noise. I said, "Wow, that's an interesting noise you're making. What is it?" And he grinned and signed/said, "baby". LOL! I guess that's what he thinks a baby sounds like.

He's suddenly started being very affectionate, which is SO sweet. He will pick up toys and kiss them, and then bring them to me to be kissed as well. He won't necessarily give us kisses when we ask, but a couple of times a day he will decide it's time, and will come over, climb in my lap, crawl up my body, take my face in his hands, rub his nose against mine, and then plant one on me. How cute is that? I love that he just decides to do it spontaneously, every now and then. He's also starting to repeat "I love you" but it comes out more as "I love-love."

Speaking of affection, he's started noticing little girls lately. It's really weird how he seems to know the difference between boys and girls. I could be reading too much into it, but I don't think so. For example, we went to a toddler LLL meeting yesterday, and there were three other moms with toddlers. One was a little boy a bit younger than Carter, and they generally ignored each other (except when one had a car the other wanted). There were two little girls, and one was about two with brown hair in pigtails, really adorable. Carter kept going over to her and signing "monkey" (she had a shirt with monkeys on it) and then staring at her. He would also hand her cars, which is really significant, because he NEVER gives his cars to other kids. At one point she was holding three cars and he was trying to hand her another one. Then he would stand there and just stare at her. It was really cute!

We got some new outside toys recently, and I hope to post pictures of those tonight. I just need it to stop being so hot so we can actually play outside more...