From the Mouth of MY Babe

My sweet little boy has always been a talker. He's been babbling since he was about 6-7 months old. He is just like my grandfather he was named after: a preacher man from Ireland! Noah's got the "gift of gab," there is no doubt.

He is only 20 months old and can count to FIFTEEN! I am not kidding you: he has been counting for about a month and sometimes goes from 1-5 and then 7,9,10, but in the past week, he's learned to go all the way to 15. I am not exaggerating that - I will videotape it and let you guys see what a genius this kid is.

Here are some other wild words that are in his regular vocabulary:
- Helicopter (comes out hel, lel, lel...opter but you get the drift!)
- I hear airplane: I eah ahhh-paanne
- I yuv u, Mommy - melts my heart
- Jan-Jan, Graddy, Poppy, Grammy, Keddy, Papu: his grandparents, Aunt Kelly and his dog, Piper
- He loves to yell at horsies and airplanes flying overhead: "Come heuh now!"
- Shoes, juice, food, car, truck, BUS!, book, puppy, kitty-cat... he says so many words - I could go on and on.
- Tyrone, Melmo: he loves these two t.v. characters
- Nemo: comes out "Meemo" but we got him a Beta fish this week and he named it "Nemo"

He's been naming body parts for a while, mostly his privates! He's fascinated with his "tee-tee," "boobies," and "bum-bum." His new favorite game is to sneak up on me or Dan when we are changing and hit our "bum bums." A flattering picture but, hey, I am honest! He LOVES to do that.

And just today while at the Base Exchange and while we were waiting in line right in front of about 7 pilots, Noah reaches up from the cart, grabs my chest and YELLS "Mommy's boobies!" I WAS HORRIFIED. I whispered quickly in his ear that that was Mommy's private part and he should be quiet but the damage was done and my face turned scarlet. The pilots got a huge kick out of it!

This afternoon, he was being especially trying. He grabbed my water bottle, unscrewed it and ran into the middle of the living room where he dumped out the whole thing. The entire time I was yelling for him to stop but he defied me. So, I got up, spanked him and put him immediately into his crib for a "time out."

Right away, he threw his toys and blankets over the side of the crib and screamed bloody murder. After a few minutes when he'd calmed down a bit, I went back in and got into his face and asked him if he understood why he was in time out. He said "Mommy, Watee (water), Soddy (sorry)." So, I said "When Mommy says no, you are supposed to obey me." He responded with "Okay Mommmeeeee" and continued to sob. But we hugged, said we loved each other and he went and picked up his favorite toys, Tyrone and Elmo, and placed them back into his crib. Dr. Dobson would have been proud of me.

Ahh, my little talker: already embarrassing me!