It's the Little Things

Today I received my new debit card in the mail. It expires in 2021, by which time Trump will no longer be president. I mean, I suppose he could be re-elected for a second term, but I sincerely hope that the pendulum will swing back a bit faster this time. There is a light at the end of this tunnel and it's getting closer every day.

Today I encountered the word Coca-Colonialism. The concise description of a particular phenomenon delighted me. All those people who revere German for having such delightfully specific words are clearly not paying attention to English. Or language in general.

Today I successfully held Child's Pose. This doesn't seem like a lot. I think it's widely regarded as the easiest yoga pose, and it's certainly a resting pose. But in the past my stomach has always gotten in the way. I couldn't breath unless I widened my knees to provide a space. Today I didn't have to do that. I held it. I breathed. I felt a lovely stretch in my back and neck. Small victories are still victories and Downward Dog feels a bit less impossible now.

Words

Gavin is currently going through a bit of a language explosion, and it's a ton of fun.

A few weeks back, the only world he really solidly knew was "no". He said it to everything. He would shout "mama" if he was very upset, but he wouldn't say it on command. Everything was just no, no, no.

But now he's picking up words like it's his job. And the best part (to me) is that it's so tied to books. He's not reading yet, but this is certainly a sign of early literacy. So here are a few of the words Gavin knows and the circumstances he says them under.

• Runs into the kitchen saying "nanana" and pointing towards the fruit bowl. This means he wants a banana.
• In the kitchen, points to the island and says "ma ma", which means a teething biscuit (the brand we get is mum mums"
• Points to the fridge and says "ma ma". This means milk. The pointing is the key distinction.
• Opens a book to a picture of a cow and says "moo". This works with two or three different books that I know of, so it definitely recognizes cows.
• In Jimmy Fallon's "Mama" book, Gavin recognizes and says "ball" on the page with the soccer ball. He also identifies his own soccer ball as ball. It's unclear if this extend to other types of balls yet.
• In the same book, Gavin will point to the picture of the owls and say "whoo".
• In "Go Dog, Go", Gavin knows to say "dog" on the first page. He loves dogs. He knows that Kina is a dog, and he can almost always identify dogs and call them such
• I think he may also know "duck", but it sounds exactly the same as "dog" at the moment. But he will point to pictures of ducks, say "duck", and laugh when I quack. The goal is clearly to make me quack, so I think he knows the difference between the two words. He just can't quite articulate it.
• I can't transcribe this next one. It's about five or six syllables long, has lots of p's and t's in it and means "blow bubbles". He may also be able to say "bubble", but it sounds a lot like ball and he'll only say it about half the time. I don't know where this came from or why this phrase is three times as long as it needs to be, but it is very clear what he means.

This is all I can think of for now. It's so exciting to watch my kid figure out language. He still has trouble communicating sometimes, and more often than not it seems like his tears are because of his frustration about this. But he's getting there, and it won't be long now before he can express himself. He definitely understands almost everything Kevin and I say, and now it's just about figuring out how to do that himself.