ARE YOU IGNORING ME???

Sylo (his new nickname) is a kid who doesn't talk that much yet, and when he does, we don't often understand what he's saying.  But he has inflection, stress in the appropriate places to denote the type of speech he is using (question, story-telling, exclamations, etc.).  He watches Wow Wow Wubbzy enough that he has been starting to interject "aaaah"s (like when he knows a crusty cragasaurus is about to show up) or a "hop hop hop" in tempo with the song, "Hop hop hop do the happy hop".  He also knows the answers to certain verbal prompts, like, "what do you want?" (answer: "uuh", with hands raised to mean he wants to be picked up, or "rink", with hand to mouth).  He also doesn't respond to me unless he "feels like it", which is a boy thing I've learned from my other boy, but I often wonder if Sy is understanding me or ignoring me.  Some days I don't know, but Sylo has surprised me on several occasions this week... check it!

1. On Wednesday, we had our biannual trip to the dentist, and we arrived early so my older son, Zeke, could play the PlayStation in the waiting room.  It was 3:30, so the place was packed with kids and parents alike.  Sylas used that to his full advantage, walking around saying hi to everyone, waving, and saying, "ice meet you" as he stretched out his palms to shake hands and make friends.  He heard a little girl say "hug" to her mom, and he went right over to her to give her a hug.  (I know, at some point he will need stronger "social graces" training, but he's 3 - it was really cute!).  He told Dr. Missy, "no like" while she was trying to brush his teeth, then grabbed the toothbrush and said "me do".  She used a different type of toothpaste than we use at home, and he let us know he knew by saying, "uuuck" and blowing a raspberry.  When we were leaving the office, he bellowed, "byeeeeeee" a bunch of times, waved, and stopped to say "byeeeeee" to some of the people he'd met while in the waiting room.  What a great trip to the dentist!  (Oh, and both the boys' teeth are super clean and healthy!)

2. One afternoon, I was in the kitchen cleaning up, and had a Wow Wow Wubbzy on in the living room for him.  When I went back in to check on him, he had gotten a hold of my cell phone, and was "talking".  I couldn't understand him; I just watched.  I tried to interrupt him a few times, saying things like, "are you on the phone?" or "who are you talking to?".  After 2 or 3 interruptions from Mom, he walked over to the TV, shut it off, said, "SHHHHHH, I'm on phone!" then continued about his conversation!

3. We have been working during mealtime on him asking for more between bites.  He has gotten pretty good at "more" both verbally and with the sign.  I have tried in the past to prompt him to say, "more please" or "more eat" or "eat please", but often he only responds to whatever the last word of the prompt is.  This week, he started saying "more eat please" on about 50% of the occasions I prompted him, and "more please" on about 30% of the prompts.  He is switching between signs and verbal response with the "eat" and "more" responses, but he always says and signs "please".  It sounds like "peeeees" and it's so cute!

4. We have been potty training Sylas when he allows for us to (sometimes he takes his pull-up off and pees wherever he is sitting/standing at the time, sometimes he pees then takes his pull-up off).  Yesterday morning, he took his pull up off and peed all over the living room floor (luckily it's not carpeted), and after I made him clean it up with me, we talked about how you're supposed to go pee on the potty and not on the floor.  As usual, I couldn't tell for 100% sure if it sunk in or not, but when we got home from preschool that afternoon, I asked him if he wanted to go pee on the potty, and he said, "yesssssssss", then grabbed my hand, led me upstairs to the potty, got his potty seat, put it on, flushed the toilet (I know, the order is off, but whatever, it was so cute!), then pulled down his pants and said, "uuuh" and put his hands up.  I put him on the potty and he smiled, leaned forward, looked up at me and said, "sssssssssssssssss".  He didn't pee, but he knows!  2 hours later, he said to me, "I poop".  Sure enough, he'd pooped in his pull-up! 

5. There is a metal air duct return on the floor in our dining room that is big enough for Sylas to get into and actually sit down.  We went through about 6 months of trying to train him out of pulling the cover off the vent before we moved one of the couches on top of it.  Little did we know that idea would slowly ruin our HV/AC unit over the course of a year and a half due to restricted air flow, so we had to move the couch back off it.  In the past 2 weeks or so, Sy has rediscovered his old passion for this little vent cover.  He has been getting Super Nanny time outs for over a year now and is just starting to sit independently on the step for 1 minute without me having to "block him in", so we've done about 10 time outs this week - every time I hear that grate move or see him trying to move it.  Each time, I tell him, "not for Sylas; not for play" and tell him, "say sorry", to which he always says, "sorry".  And I'll admit, for the past 2 years, 90% of the time he had time outs, I wondered if he "got it"... like whether he knew he was doing a time out and saying he's sorry to his brother because he pulled his hair, you know?  Last night, I was cooking dinner, and I heard that grate move.  I walked into the dining room and there was little Sylo... RUNNING full speed ahead from the grate to the couch in the living room.  I climbed over the gate between the dining room and kitchen and went toward him, and as I was starting my spiel, Sylas said, "aw we" (sorry) then sat on the couch.  I took his hand and led him back to the grate, and as we were walking there, he said, "no way" and did the sign for play.  EUREKA!!!!  HE GETS IT!!!!!!!!  Of course, the grate was an issue a few more times last night, and the reminding and redirecting seems like it will never end, but HE GETS IT!!!  I'm a proud Mom!

There are so many days; weeks even; that go by when I wonder if he understands what I'm saying to him or asking of him, and then some days it's crystal clear.