Thirtysomething

Month 17 or the Month of E-Pootbal

I swear I started a post about this, but Blogger apparently ate it. So Rolo is 17 months old. Less than a month away from being a year and a half.

He's had a language explosion of sorts the last two weeks and all of a sudden, he's trying to repeat anything we ask him to. Although most words aren't pronounced correctly, I'm still able to understand what he's saying. Most of the time. His vocabulary tends to fall into two camps: words he will say only when prompted and words he will say on his own, when he either sees or experiences something related to certain words.

One of his favorite things to say is "E-pootbal" (read: Eagles football). He says every time he sees a football or any Eagles paraphernalia. In fact last week we passed a Lids store in the mall, and Rolo totally went ape-shit, nearly hurling himself out of his stroller, yelling "E-POOTBAL!" when he saw an Eagles hat in the window. Ron, as you might imagine, is so proud. One might argue that it might be more helpful if he learned more practical words like "eat" or "poop" or "drink" or anything related to primary functions in life. But no, he is his father's child and football reigns supreme.

Word association proves to be confusing to toddlers. We have an Eagles wreath (don't even ask) and whenever Rolo sees it, he promptly says "E-Pootbal" because there is an Eagle on the snowmen. Unfortunately whenever he sees any OTHER snowmen, he also says "E-pootbal" because apparently ALL snowmen now represent the Eagles franchise.

Another word he literally just started saying, and frankly, I'm shocked it took this long, is "no". Which he says by drawing out the "o" sound for a fairly long time while simultaneously giving you a look that clearly reads "Are you out of your freaking mind?" It amuses me. I know it won't for much longer.

He's also starting to grasp the appropriate meaning of nodding and will nod "yes" when I ask him questions.

Rolo is have short but distinct phases now. For a week, he won't want his morning bottle, something he normally devours when he wakes up. Then he might be back on the bottle but he'll want to have his toy monkey tucked under one arm. Then for a few days, he might only want to read one book (ad nauseum) and then he might undergo a few days when he pleasantly lays still during diaper changes before reverting back to his usual whirling dervish ways during changes. Then it's a week of not wanting to eat chicken followed by a week of ONLY wanting to eat chicken. It's, um, a constant surprise what the phase of the day will be. Toddlers are awesome like that.

Signing isn't going spectacularly, but he does the sign for "more" constantly. And that sign, in Rolo's mind means many things like "more: get me something different than this food in front of me" or "more: read this book that I'm handing you" or "more: I would like something but I don't know the word for it so I'm just going to signal 'more' so that you know that there is some nameless thing that I desire."

Lastly, Rolo's starting to think in more abstract ways. When I read him a story a couple of weeks ago that involved the words "washing up for dinner" and Rolo immediately starting rubbing his hands together like one would when washing one's hands. I realized what he was doing and asked "Are you washing your hands?" And he nodded solemnly and pointed back to the book. We don't really ever use the phrase "washing up for dinner" around our house, so I'm assuming he just connected it with washing your hands. He makes the same motion every time we get to that part of the book.

I'll try to post again with an 18 month update next month, as I'm sure my little man will be up to a lot more.

Labels: Rolo

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 9:08 AM