New Words

Papa recently read how the second child in a family faces language challenges in comparison to the first child, since children only learn when you speak directly to them and are interacting with them, and that indirectly overheard or "secondhand" language makes very little difference. So when there is one child, that child receives all of the talk. When there are two, the talk per child is divided roughly in half. That puts second and later kids behind the firstborn in a statistically significant way.

So we have been trying to speak more to Stephen. It seemed to take effect within days of starting, with Stephen becoming more vocal and saying more words.

Some of his new words he has been saying:

Go!
Bath
Hot! (He pretends he is taking a bath, then steps out and says, Hot! Hot!)
He has been attempting names too, like Ivett, Joe, and Scott.
Chht! (Quiet! Or, Stop! Holds finger up in front of face)
Cereal
Food
Book
Thank you (Eeh Ooo)
Red light! Green light! (From the game, red light green light, but he recognizes red and green streetlights now, too)
Juice
And he continues practicing his all-time favorite, No!
Plus some more that are not coming to me at the moment...

Papa's Belly

Sarah: Papa, do you have a baby?

Papa: No, Sarah, I just ate a sandwich.

Sarah: Oh, was it a really BIG sandwich?

Papa (serious face)

Sarah: Was it a LOT of sandwiches?

Papa (serious face)

Sarah: Is that why you look like that?

Papa (serious face)

Mama (laughing)