Bad Mommy! A Few Choice Words

I haven't been posting about Alton lately. I have been consumed by getting ready for Christmas and the fact that I am ill. That is much better excuse than the truth, which is digital scrapbooking has taken over my life and I feel badly because I let myself compare my child to other children. Which is something we should never ever do as mothers.

Alton still isn't talking much. A few of his peers speak way more than he does, and I have let that embarrass me; thinking that he is behind or I should be doing more, like reading to him EVEN more or doing flash cards or something.... In reality he is right where he should be. His pediatrician is very impressed with his motor skills, both fine and large. He is ahead on some of his physical skills, and she told me that sometimes kids just race ahead in one area, and then catch up on the others later.

Since his 18 month appointment, he was learned even more new words, and some new signs. He is still using Daddy, doggie, duckie, and dirty. At his appointment, he used Mama. Which he had learned the sign for already.

My sister was watching Alton while I went to the doctor, and she was trying to get him to say Mama. He kept signing "Mama" at her, and she called me and asked, "What does it mean when he sticks his hand out like a turkey and keeps banging his chin with it?" I told her, "Mama." She swore and said, "You need to stop teaching him sign language. He is never going to learn to talk if he keeps this up!" I am going to refrain from further comments about that at this time.

Any way, he learned the sign for "Mama" and I am trying to teach him, "I love you". I use the sign and the words, so I am hoping he will pick up both.

As far as words go, he has said his first sentence! My dad and I were at Disneyland and were walking past the Rivers of America. We asked Alton, "Do you see duckies?" He repeated back to us quite clearly, "I see duckies!" This leads me to believe that he has the capacity to say a lot more than he actually does.

This isn't the first time he has taken his sweet time to do something. He started cruising at 6 months. We were convinced that he would start walking by nine months. But, he did not walk unassisted until 11 months. But once he did walk, he did it well right away. None of this stumbling and taking only 2 or 3 steps. He was crossing rooms as soon as he walked unassisted.

So his word repertoire now includes the following: Daddy, doggie, donkey, dirty, ducky, mama, yeah, no, and all done.
His signing repertoire includes, "Mama", "diaper", "please", "thank you", "more", and "all done".

This weekend he started telling us when his diaper was dirty and demanded a changed diaper. :) He has done it every day since Saturday. We bought him a potty today. I am not sure what I am going to do about potty training. I don't want to rush him, but it would nice to not have wash diapers as often....