Two letter words

We had the worst dinner out ever, last night.   

Lily learned the word 'no', and has immediately taken to advance forms such as 'NO' and 'Nooooo'.   It's not a word she has chosen to use sparingly.   She has realized the power of the word to enliven even the most mundane situation, and appears to be on a mission to enliven every situation.

Some day I'm sure we'll look back and laugh about it, but that day won't be today.

Linguistic Leaps and Binds

Maybe I'm just projecting my thoughts, because I've been reading a book (The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature) by 'noted' Psychologist/Linguist Steven Pinker, but Lily seems to have taken off verbally the last few days.   Where most of her spoken words, up to this point, have been wholly functional - bottle, eat, move, up, etc - the vocabulary seems to have been growing in spurts lately.   You can now ask her arbitrary questions, such as 'what is your baby's name?' and get an answer.    It can be out of left field, but it's definitely in the ballpark (it sounds like it could be a name), rapid (hinting that she might have thought about it prior to being asked), and surprisingly consistent (meaning she answers the same throughout the day).

For example, the response to that question was originally a word that sounded like 'rob-rob'.  The morphemes were distinctively different than anything else I have heard her say.  I guessed a few words that she might be saying, but it was never 'confirmed'.   The next day she was asked the same question by Cindy ('what is the baby's name?') and responded much more clearly that the baby's name was in fact - 'yellow'.    This was confirmed.

The ability to communicate seems to have alleviated some (not all) of the frustration she has when she doesn't get her 'way'.   We always attributed her little tantrums to an inability to communicate back to us, and the decrease in tantrums appears, at least on the surface, to be related to increased ability to vocalize thoughts.    I could see where the inability to vocalize things would be frustrating, especially given the gap between what she understands and what she can relay back to us.  Just from how she reacts to conversation, it's very clearly she understands a great deal more than she can verbalize.   An example is how she'll race down the hall to find nail clippers if I mention that her nails need to be clipped - even if I make no visual cue to her fingers.   There are numerous examples like that.

I am going to make it a point to ask her to say more words in the coming days.    We typically go through picture books to have her identify 'flowers' or 'butterflies' already, but it would probably be good to drive activities that prompt her to vocalize more often.

It's for reals

Cindy had a doctor's visit today - she's doing weekly visits now.   All's well, again.

There is a room (mostly) ready in the house with a brand new crib in it (and not much else).   All that remains is some furniture movement, a ceiling light fixture swap and some clouds painted on the wall.

Lily can identify her brother's room, even if her understanding of the 'baby' is hazy, at best.

We even started thinking about logistics of the actual birth.   Who will go where, when and why.

The delivery will occur sometime between now and three weeks from Thursday, which makes it all very real.

Baby vs Toddler

The honest truth is that I kind of dread the first year.  I wish we could hit the fast forward button and have two toddlers.   Toddlers just seem to make a lot more sense to me now.   Their thoughts can appear wispy, even rebellious, and they can be more physically and mentally demanding, but it all just makes more sense.

Babies, on the other hand, draw more attention from strangers, but ask for far more than they give back.  Feedback is limited and even their personality is a mystery that only unravels over time.   They are loved for the potential, but hide most of that away till the toddler in them brings it out.

Now, I'm sure my feelings will change when the little guy arrives.  It's likely just that I forgot how fun it was the first time, and have become biased towards the toddler years.    If not, then it'll only be a year or so before I'll wish he was a baby again.

One Month

Eight hours ante merideum, on the eighteenth of March - Cindy has an appointment for a cesarean section.    That's a day less then one month away, and we are in the shortest month of the year.    So, within a (short) month we'll have a brand new baby boy.   We still don't have a name or a fully prepared room, or even all that much time to think about it......but he's coming.

Time is what nature has provided to make sure everything doesn't all happen at once, but nature sure is stingy with it.

Divine Software Design

Watching Lily slowly expand her phonemic repertoire, and begin to show the first signs of language (as opposed to just vocabulary) is an absolutely phenomenal sight, that could be easy to overlook.   A staff of researchers could spend their lives training a monkey, and that monkey will never be able to do what Lily (and most every other nearly-2 year old's) mind will do over the next year - learn to speak.    She'll develop those skills with nurturing parents around her, but would do the same in any environment where she is exposed to people speaking.   She'll do that not because our brains are so complex that they naturally pick up any language it is exposed to (during that brief window of the first 4 years), but because that's how the brain was designed.   We are programmed for language.

The development of language is made even more amazing when you realize that it's only the visual part of how her mind will be shaped as this programming begins to take effect.   Language rests on a logical interpretation of the world - causation.   For example, we can imagine a person standing next to a unicorn, but can not imagine the same thing with the additional requirement that one is NOT to the left of the other.   So, by design, our minds are bound to logic (causation), but not to reality (we can still imagine).  So, we know where the cup ends and the table begins, and can differentiate between that cup and the shards of glass it becomes if it falls to the floor.   This is all due to the base programming - the awesome software design - in our head, that was there from the start.

As parents we have the ability to point the child in one direction or another, but it's a tweak rather then any grand effect.   That is not to say that parenting has anything less than a drastic effect, but it does us best to remember that the prototypical child comes pre-programmed in many facets.

As a computer programmer and human being, I'm in awe.   The complexity of the human eye has often been cited as proof of creation over evolution.  The eye is protected perfectly in the skull, 180 degree movement, auto focus, stereoscopic (as in two, to give us depth but isn't it amazing how we only 'see' one image?)....and that's just humans -- every animal species ocular set is just as well 'designed'.   The focus is always the hardware though - when it's the software - the mind that interprets that data which those two perfectly placed camera's return, that is really amazing.   What we have here is intricacy and complexity beyond human comprehension, so to assume it arose from anything but a higher intelligence is irrational.

Paint & Doctors

I'm painting the boys room now.  New paint and a good carpet cleaning are about all we are doing.   You just don't have as much time preparing for the second kid.   By the third, or especially the eighth, they are probably lucky to get a crib (which will be put together as soon as the room is done!).

Cindy gave me creative license with the paint, and I chose a rather intricate design.   So far, we are both very happy with the results.   It'll be a really interesting room, when we are done, and I'll post pictures here shortly after that milestone is reached.

Cindy also had doctors appointment yesterday,  here are the stats:

• The boy is on track to be 7 or 8 lbs (smaller than Lily)
• Cindy only gained one pound since the last visit (Cindy is happy)
• Everything is looking good

The Doctor said everything looks good, and Cindy looks 100X better than she did at this point with Lily (her feet are normal sized now).

The Bowl Game

We gave Lily her own potty on her 21-month birth day.   It's a plastic toilet, themed with Winnie the Pooh.  She showed a keen interest in it even before it came out of the box.    We located it in the bathroom and used a very low pressure sales pitch to explain the usage.  While she clearly remained interested in the device and our descriptions of its use, she sat on it only once, briefly, at that location.

She then took to dragging the device across the house to the family room, where I was watching Super Bowl XLIV, a game between the Saints and the Colts.   She examined the device a little more in its new location before pulling down her diaper & pants and taking a seat on it.    Then she got up and pulled up her pants (with some assist).    Then she did it all again, and again, and again, and so on.   She kept doing it, and with practice she clearly got better at it, even if I had to help her pull up her pants each time.

The highlight came after Cindy joined the cheering section.    I went to get the camera, to capture this moment.  She's in that small window when a person can beam with pride because they managed to sit on the toilet (when sitting on the toilet in the family room is picture worthy).   Just as I started taking pictures, Lily peed.   The quantity was small, but the event was monumental.   Cheers were heard.

So, that was the super bowl game, from our house.

This is a long way from 'potty trained' but it's a good step.   As time goes on we know that interest and desire on her part may wane.  Many things, such as the attention her new brother gets during change time, might be a factor.  Overall though, this is a much better start than we expected.