New Words

It's always so fun the hear Rylan say new words, and it seems his vocabulary has just sprouted over the last week. It surprises me every time when he says a new word out of the blue. He loves to watch Curious George (which I find myself chuckling at little George sometimes...he really is cute!). One day he just started pointing at the t.v. and saying "moomy" (movie). Of course, I thought it was so cute I had to let him watch t.v.! Now he will occassionally say "watch" but it's still usually "moomy".

Let me sidetrack here, and then I will get back to the new words. Ok, so for quite some time, Rylan didn't watch t.v. As a baby he never liked the Baby Einstein movies and as he's grown up, I've just kept him away from the t.v. Kevin and I don't watch t.v. until Rylan is in bed, which means I stopped watching Ellen (I think she is HILARIOUS!), The View, Good Things Utah, whatever. Okay, wait...Rylan and I do watch Wheel of Fortune while we are eating lunch, but that was the only t.v. on during the day. So, one day I was trying to get dinner finished as Kevin came home from work. Kevin had some things he had to do but Rylan was really wanting some attention. So what did we do? Yep, we sat Rylan down in front of the t.v. to watch some Curious George. It was great! Rylan was happy, I got to finish dinner without carrying Ry on my hip, and Kevin was able to do his stuff. In fact, it worked out so well that for the next week or so, that was just what we did. I made dinner, Rylan watched CG and Kevin did his own thing. Bad habit. Rylan started asking for "monkey" (another word he started saying recently and it's so dang cute to hear him say "monkey") throughout the day. Occasionally I'd give in, cause hey, I get the chance to get things done! Well, the other day, I get him out of bed, we go downstairs to get some breakfast, and the first thing he says is "moomy" in a whiny voice. I tried to distract him with some other options, telling him he could help me make breakfast, but I could tell he was about to lose it. Before the meltdown, I figured I'd rather let him watch t.v. while I made breakfast, and then I wouldn't have a tantrum to deal with. I'm ashamed to say, that the television was on for about an hour and a half before I could distract Rylan and get him to do something else!! And then still, the rest of the day he was asking for his "moomy". What makes it even worse is that when the show or movie is over, once he sees those credits rolling he goes into panic mode and starts crying....like his life has just ended. He's a nut! So yesterday I decided it was a no t.v. day...and he made it! In fact, Rylan only asked once to watch a moomy but I quickly brought out some toys. And again today, he's only asked once to watch t.v. but that was when I was on the phone so I just ended the conversation and gave Ry the attention he soooo needs! So how do you all keep your kids television watching limited? I feel like if I was to let Rylan watch one episode of CG, he'd want the tv on the rest of the day. It just seems better to keep the tv off all day (even though that means I don't get to sit down and read or do my Sudoku puzzle!).

Ok, back to the vocabulary expansion. Rylan is really into circles. He says circle for any shape and tries to draw a circle in the air with his hand (which started after I was trying to explain a circle to him one day...the things kids catch on!). Just today Rylan and I were playing on my bed. He leaned up against the wall and said "wall"...he's never said that before! And then he caressed my face with his little hand and said "face"...it was so clear and easy to understand. It was sweet! Well, not all his words have been so clear. So, about a week ago we were in the house and Ry kept say "dah-duh" and I could NOT figure out what he was trying to say. He repeated it over and over, and finally gave up when I couldn't figure it out. I forgot about it until yesterday. We were playing outside (yes, I'm thrilled to finally be able to go outside again. We need this spring weather and the sunshine) and Rylan stopped and said "dah-duh". Uh oh, here it goes again. But then Ry pointed up in the sky at an airplane and said "dah-duh". I said "ry, that's an airplane" and he pointed again and said "dah-duh". I have no clue how he gets "dah-duh" out of airplane, but boy am I glad to know what he's talking about when he says "dah-duh"!! I told this story to Kevin and not long after, Rylan said to Kev "dah-duh" and they continued a conversation about airplanes. Kevin was so glad I told him that "dah-duh" somehow means "airplane".

So now I can't remember all of Rylan's new words, but his favorite is "okay" but he draws it out and says "ohhhhhhkaaaaaaaaaay". And I realized how often I say "okay"...and not just in response to a question. I'll be unloading the dishwasher and when I finish, I'll say "ohhhhkaaay". I was hanging up clothes in Rylan's closet and finished by saying "ohhhkaaay". I guess we all know where Rylan gets it from! We put Ry to bed last night and we could hear him saying "ohhhhkaaaay" until he finally fell asleep. This little boy makes me laugh :)