I think that there has been a big change in Nathan in the last month.  He has been getting much more clear with his desires….we generally know what he wants, whether it is to go bicycle riding, playing with his train or reading a book.  But what has changed is how clear he is with his ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answers when I ask him questions.  I now ask him if he wants something and he shakes his hand to say ‘yes’ (it’s like waving, except it’s supposed to be the Auslan sign language sign for ‘yes’ with a closed fist) and if he doesn’t want it he gives a shake of his head and says “no”.  It’s particularly useful for toileting….I generally just ask him now if he needs to wee and if he really doesn’t need to go then he will shake his head.  If he does need to go I get something a bit more ambiguous, anything from no response to saying ‘yes’.   I got quite confident about his responses a couple of weeks ago and took the plunge to having Nathan in proper undies (not training pants) when I’m looking after him and I have to say it’s been a success!  We have one wee miss about every second day at the moment, and they are usually in the afternoon/evening.

The other big thing that’s happened this month is that I’ve stopped feeding Nathan to sleep at night.  He lies on our bed with me and I talk to him about all sorts of things and he snuggles into me and just drifts off to sleep.  Then about 10 minutes later I transfer him to the cot.

These are some of the things that Nathan has been doing in the last month:

Kicking his soccer ball

Complaining about getting sand on his feet/hands/knees etc.

Climbing hundreds of steps (and picking up a leech on his ankle) while out bushwalking, and hugging trees.

Eating his paints and playing piano

Playing with his friend in the mirror and riding on Mummy’s back

Driving his red car (but not steering) and climbing the rope structure in the playground

Stealing licorice (and loving it) and feeding himself (and the floor) breakfast

There are not many words that Nathan can say properly yet.  Often he will just say the start or the end of a word, but he can say both ‘Mummy’ and ‘Daddy’.  At least he could until recently.

Nathan quite happily says ‘Mama’ or ‘Mummy’, and sometimes he says ‘Mummy’ over and over again so that it ends up being ‘Me-ma’.  It goes something like this…. ma me, ma me, ma me ma, me ma, me ma.

Neither Andrew or I understand, however, how Nathan came to call Andrew ‘Ma-moo’.  He used to call him ‘Daddy’, then suddenly he stopped and we thought he was calling him ‘Mum’ but it’s not, it’s ‘Ma-Moo’.  He thinks it’s hilarious….I ask Nathan to say ‘Daddy’, and he grins and says ‘Ma-Moo’.  Andrew asks him to call him ‘Dad’, and he grins and says ‘Ma-Moo’.  We ask him to point to Mummy and he points to me; we ask him to point to Daddy and he points to Andrew; we ask him to point to Ma-Moo and he points to Andrew and grins.  There’s some private joke that he’s just not sharing with us, and until he tires of it Andrew seems to be known as Ma-Moo.