Tobey: Speech progress

Tobey's speech continues to develop and he's starting to sound like a real little boy. The latest development is that he's starting to figure out pronouns, when to use "you" and when to use "I/me". He used to ask, "Mommy, come play with you?" (meaning for me to play with him) but lately has been saying, "Mommy, come sit on the couch with me." He's also been using a few more of those extra words like "that" and "the", articles that distinguish him from a baby talker to a blossoming one.

Another aspect of Tobey's speech that we never noticed before is that he doesn't really parrot us like we'd expect a toddler to do. Well, okay, he did catch Tom saying, "Neener neener!" to me (yes, Tom really did say that jokingly) and of all the times, Tobey caught on and repeated neener neener. But otherwise, it's not so much that he repeats everything we say, maybe because half the time we're asking him to repeat after us so he learns a new word or phrase.

The reason why we noticed that he doesn't really mimick us is because he DOES mimick the announcer guy on DDR! (Dance Dance Revolution, Tom's Christmas gift to me.) After a good dance, the guy might say, "You're like sunshine on a cloudy day!" and Tobey will repeat it word for word. While dancing, he might say, "Great job!" and Tobey will say it just as animated. The even scarier part is the "wok wok" sound that the Playstation makes when you move the cursor or make a selection. Tobey does that too!

On the encouraging side, because of Tobey's growing speech, I get to see him grow as a thinker, or at least in making connections. Each morning I eat cereal but sometimes it's Honey Bunches (w/ nuts so Tobey can't eat it yet) or Special K (w/o nuts which I'll let Tobey eat sometimes). The other morning I brought it out and Tobey says, "Tobey can eat that cereal. It has no nuts." This morning at the end of breakfast, I get up and say that I'm all done and he goes, "I'm all done too!" He's definitely graduated to making up his own sentences and thoughts, not just regurgitating ours.