Nathan’s Words

Nathan went from yelling/screaming for all his forms of communication to talking and signing in the last few weeks! First he learned to sign “more”, with his pointer finger sticking out and making a two syllable sound.  This sound and sign are also used to say “help”.  Usually he starts with a scream, abruptly stops, and then gives his two syllable sound and sign.  Once we repeat what he wants, “You want more raisins Nathan?” or “Did you need help picking up your spoon?”  he scrunches up his face and gives a little victory laugh.

A few weeks ago he was big on “uh-oh”.  He would throw something on the ground and then say, “uh-oh” and laugh with Emily about it.

He wiggles his fingers and says tickle, “duck-a duck-a duck-a”.

Last week at church he learned the sign for apple.  He wiggles his fist by his forehead.  He also used it later in the week for orange.  The funny thing about this sign is that he REFUSES to let Andrew see him do it.

Outside at the playground this week he saw his friend run out of the house and said, “Kay Kay” for Katie.  That is the first name he attempted to say, and the first time I’ve heard him make the “k” sound.

Nathan loves the little playground outside our house.  Swinging, sliding, climbing, bouncing on the teeter totter, and playing in the sand all are wins for him.  If he wants to get on the swing or bouncer he alerts me with his two syllable noise and signs “help” and then shows extreme excitement that I understood.

When he was sitting on the teeter totter on Thursday he saw a car drive up.  Emily and I signed “car” and he joined right in, bumping his two fists together (a perfect “more”, but he definitely means car).  He’s been using that sign ever since.  He loves looking out the window and telling us car. I was also surprised he saw toy cars at church and signed car.

He consistently asks for water by pointing to the shelf where his sippy cups are and makes noises until we say, “Oh do you want more water Nathan?” and then he gets super excited.  The last few days he has adamantly refused sippy cups and only wants a regular one. Unfortunately he only wants it because he knows we won’t take the lid off his sippy cup and he really wants to play with the water.  I indulge probably twice a day.

His absolute favorite thing to do of all time right now is to draw/write.  He specifically asks for a pen the moment he wakes up in the morning.  He has sat at the table with me for an hour and forty five minutes completely content to write the entire time.  He loves he when we trace his hand and has been trying it himself, but he detests getting pen on his fingers and holds it up to us to clean off.  Once when I marked pen on his finger he kept pulling his hand away any time I came close with the pen again.  Right now he spends a lot of time making circles.