More To Come

Will's fever is gone (it hovered around 100 for a day or two and finally broke yesterday afternoon) and he never displayed any other symptoms. He is still grumpy and not eating as much as usual, but I guess I would say he is "better." I always worry about ear infections, since he has had them in the past, and he is tugging at his ears a lot right now, but we have been to the doctor many times with suspicious ear-tugging, only to be told that all is well. He seems okay and I think I will just let this ride through the weekend.

Have I mentioned Will's obsession with kitties? We have one, but she is not baby friendly. She runs from Will whenever he gets that gleam in his eye. I know there will eventually be a cat-baby showdown, with claw marks on Will to prove it, but I am hoping we can put it off for awhile.

Anyway, kitty is the first word that I know he really knew what it meant. He had been saying it for a few weeks, but when I read him an Olivia book, he pointed right at the cat and said, "kitty!" He was rather pleased with himself. Now, his ability to recognize kitty has gone to any picture of any cat, including when we were at the grocery store getting dog food and he pointed to the box of Friskies with great delight, pronouncing, "KITTY!!! KITTY!!! KITTY!!" We got some chuckles from nearby shoppers. And when one lady asked how old Will was, she was shocked that he wasn't even a year. She said her kids weren't identifying things by pictures until 18 months.

I try not to (and only sometimes fail) google baby development too much. I got awfully stressed when Will wasn't crawling by the end of nine months and definitely started more searching, which is just a vicious cycle. A month later, I can't believe I was ever concerned. This kid crawls faster than I can walk! So, I have no idea if knowing and identifying things by pictures is early at eleven months or not. And I don't care, honestly.

Like crawling, he will do it when he is good and ready. I do my best to engage him in stories, identifying things in conversation, and helping him to learn in a natural, comfortable way. But I don't want to push him. There will be years of more formal learning ahead of him. I know that if I googled and it said he was supposed to be identifying three things by pictures by now, I would get stressed. So, instead, I don't google and am just proud of him for saying the one word. Others will come, I am sure of it.