Organically Growing

After a pretty long lull in the teething process, it appears as though Ryder has two new lower teeth coming in. The tell-tale white lumps have been showing up for a couple of weeks, but now they are hard and he is biting on everything!

It seems like things on the language development front have been moving so fast, I can hardly keep up myself, let along blog about it.

Here’s a little summary of all the nifty new tricks Ryder has put in motion over the last three weeks (or so), in as close to order of adoption as my memory will allow:

• Signing “more” at dinner
• Signing “milk”
• “do” – while pointing at dogs, everytime he hears a dog bark or spies one in a book (even the tiniest dog in the background he spots)
• Turns up his hands and shrugs when you ask him a question, as if to say, “I don’t know!”
• “du” – while pointing at ducks
• “ba” – while pointing at birds
• “ba ba” when he sees a sheep, including those on a flyer for Serta mattress, in a book and in reference to a stuffed toy.
• “ba” while collecting every ball in a 5 mile radius
• Signs for “banana”
• Will get all the different birds (stuffed, wooden, flash cards with bird pictures on them) out of the toy drawer when you ask him, “donde esta su pajaros?” 
• Can point to nose, eyes, teeth, belly button, tummy, MY belly button, head, feet and the nose on any toy when asked in English or Spanish (but he’s better in Spanish)
• Saying “ma ma”, as in “more more” while signing “more”
• Says “no” … but not to everything. He also shakes his head “yes”, so I think he gets the difference.
• We have blocks with animal pictures on them. He is learning the sounds (but mostly makes his mouth into the shape without any noise  coming out) for the following: Monkey, Owl, Chicken.
• Sticks his tongue out when he sees a picture of  a snake
• Bounces up and down for Kangaroo
• Claps for a Seal
• Moos everytime he sees a cow. Everywhere.
• Signs for “milk” whenever he’s thirsty
• Signs for “eat” when he wants a snack
• Says “papa” – potato
• Says “pulpo” – octopus in Spanish

It seems like Ryder’s development is going nuts in the last few weeks! He’s always been obessed with dogs (pointing them out and saying, “do” in every book, magazine and street corner), but now he is recognizing other anmials including: Bird (ba), Duck (du), Cow (va - as in vaca), Sheep (baba – as in the sound).

Also, when I show him the block with an Owl or Monkey on it, he shapes his mouth into an “o” as if you say, “whoo” or “ooo, eee”. So cute.

Other interesting stills learned to date: Pointing to nose, belly, belly button, hair, foot and teeth when asked in either English or Spanish.

So much fun!!