Conversations with Nathan

Right now Nathan has five conversations that we have throughout the day:

1.  Puddles.  The moment we step foot outside Nathan starts spotting, “Pu-ble”.  He holds my hands and tries to drag me to every single one in sight.  He has started grabbing sticks and pinecones to put in the water.
2. Balls.  Nathan loves balls.  He loves playing with them and carrying them around the house.  He loves finding them outside in the neighborhood.  We found a big hill today and he laughed with great excitement to see it roll down the hill.  He will also point out every circle shape in the book and say, “ba”.  He also signs ball if Emily does it first.
3. Birds.  Nathan has excellent hearing for bird calls.  The moment he hears one in the morning through the window he starts signing bird.  When we are outside he shouts and signs bird, pointing at the sky, in the trees, or on the grass to the little creature.  He could stand in one spot all day as long as there is a bird hopping around (which we haven’t resolved with Emily’s ready to run and explore preference).
4. Dogs.  He hasn’t had a lot of interactions with dogs, but he absolutely loves them from a distance.  This morning there was a huge dog in the backyard barking behind us and he shouted joyfully and shrieked with excitement.  He knows where all the dogs are in his firetruck book and gets excited when we pass one on the bike path.
5. Trucks/Cars.  This is Nathan’s most favorite thing to talk about.  He loves seeing the garbage truck in the morning. He loves pointing out cars and trucks in the road.  He has a book about firetrucks that is his current favorite and he reads it before nap and bedtime, every time.  During the day he will often pick up a book and if he finds a vehicle in it he will follow me around the house yelling until I sit down and read it with him.  I checked out a library book last week about a work site and he sat next to us for twenty minutes turning the pages and yelling excitedly about every one.  He signs car by hitting his fists together (a lot like ‘more’).  Sometimes he’ll sit there in a trance at dinner and then look over at us and sign car, just so we he was thinking about it.