At 17 months James isn't much of a vocalizer. Unless you count various tones of 'uhhn' (while pointing). He used to say Mama pretty often, but now just usually looks expectantly at Katharine when we say it. As if to say- yeah, she's right there. He is a great listener though and has really begun to enjoy being read to; and can finally sit still long enough for a short story, though he almost always has to go find some prop to go along with the book. His favorite story is 'When the rooster crowed' by Patricia Lillie, words and pictures by... we all know it all by heart now. For this story we must find the horse and cow to slam on the pages when they neigh and moo. 'Socks' is the term he can most clearly enunciate, with 'juice' a close second. He enjoys trying to say 'James' and can almost get it. Other than that its all grunts and pointing. Earnest pointing. Oh, he can also say ajuus (eye-youse) and dag (dah ch) including the guttural sounding 'g'. Those are Dutch terms for goodbye and good day. They say if you hear two languages growing up that it can stall talking for a while- I guess because the range of terms is greater, but he hears mostly english and my sloppy dutch during the day so who knows (do kids raised mostly by men keep quiet so we don't disturb the prey during our hunts?). Whether he can talk or not he is definitely growing out of clothes pretty fast- we'll have to see what happens at the next doctor's visit in a couple of weeks.
We have the first visit to the midwive's next week, where I think they will do an initial sonogram. Katharine is quite tired (and a bit illin) in the early stages. Having a toddler and working to finish the thesis and applying and interviewing for jobs and thinking about selling this house and moving sure makes it different this time.
Her phone interview with Wheaton College in Massachusetts was very encouraging; she was one of the top two candidates but ultimately it is up to the school to choose someone from Political Science or another candidate from Natural Sciences for this position and they are leaning toward Science. We'll see.
1 comment:
Mike, It sounds like James is right on target as far as his speech goes. At this age they understand (receptive language) much more than they are capable of saying (expressive language). The motor coordination and muscles of the mouth take awhile to catch up. (And that is what 3 years of auditory verbal therapy will get you!) One day he will surprise you and come out with a full sentence. Poor Kat, that first trimester is the tired time, and I agree, #2 is a whole different ball game, not as much time to rest when you are busy taking care of #1!
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