Flanagan Clan

Ever since Patrick was about a year old, I’ve been worried by his limited vocabulary. For the longest time, the only two words he seemed to ever say were “ball” and “no”, while some of the kids who were younger than him were beginning to speak in full sentences. What a common thing for mothers to do: to constantly compare the development of their children based on the other kids they see around them. I would read the message boards on Baby Center.com about the 18 month old kids who knew their numbers and alphabet, along with a 200 word vocabulary and simple math skills, and I would pull my hair out and wonder what was going on with my son. And, honestly, I was a little worried that Patrick might be slow, and end up being a “dumb jock”.

The past week, I have just been shocked and amazed by Patrick’s development. Many of the doubts I’ve had about him have vanished as I’ve seen him prove that something is working up there in that little head of his. New accomplishments include identifying and naming the letters “O” and “I” (and he calls the letter Y “yoyo”), climbing into Sammy’s crib at night to be with little brother, taking off pj’s in the morning AND placing them in the hamper, and learning to color in the lines using his color wonder markers (they only color within the lines, and he figured that out after 4-5 sheets). But more interestingly, is something he did yesterday. I put Sammy in his high chair and told Patrick that I was going to feed Sammy. I went into the pantry to get baby food, and when I returned I found that Patrick had pulled out one of Sammy’s bowls and one of the rubberized spoons that I only use for Sammy. He had placed them both on the counter, so I could make Sammy’s cereal. I was amazed. He did it again today, only this time he pulled out two bowls and two spoons: one for him and one for Sammy. Even funnier, he color coordinated them. Sammy had green and he had purple. And he even said the word, “purple”. Earlier today Patrick started using the words, “up” and “down”. During lunch he kept on raising and lowering his arms while saying “Up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down”. It was funny. And he started saying “turtle”, although it sounds a lot like his word for “coral”. Today I asked him where the turtle was, and he had seen a picture of a turtle in the Current catalog that we had gotten. He went over to the catalog, found the page with the turtle, and brought it back to show me. What a smart kid! The other good thing that he did today happened after he started whining for a cookie. I told him, like I always do, to say please. And this time he said it. He usually doesn’t… he sometimes says it to Andrew, but not to me. So, he said “please”, and after he got the cookie, he said “thank you”. I’m sure that doesn’t really seem like much, but to me, it meant a lot. He’s been such an active toddler, and Andrew and I have had to deal with so many times when he would just refuse to use any words at all, especially words like “please”, “thank you”, “all done”, and “amen”. Finally, it seems, we’re making headway with this little guy, and we’ve underestimated that little brain of his. Now that he appears to be getting more vocal, maybe he’ll be less adverse to using the potty? One can only hope!!!!