Momma!

After hearing, "Daddy, daddy, daddy," all day long for two weeks (including every time he sees a cell phone, I was at wits end and was convinced that he loved Ben more than me.  And when he started saying "Pops" to my dad during a weekend family reunion at the Lake of the Ozarks, I decided it was high time for Jack to learn to call for me in a manner other than "Uh!" or "Ah!" or shoving into my knees.

Finally last Monday Jack said Momma for the first time!  I can't tell you how excited I was.  I know, I know, I've heard from many people that there will come a time when he'll be calling for me so much that I'll wish he never learned to say mommy, but right now I'm still basking in the greatness of finally being called mommy.  It first happened after about a week of me constantly saying, "Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy," to Jack during his every waking minute.  It sounds sort of sweetly funny, but I have to admit that I was actually pretty neurotic about it all.  

Along with adding Mommy  (now said about 500 times a day) to his list of words, Jack has picked up more sign language and is now trying to repeat many words after us.  He's also able to tell us through sound effects and miming which books he wants to read--a roar means he wants to read his dinosaur book, a hand over his mouth in a yawn means he wants to read Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late (the pigeon often yawns) woof is for The Pigeon Wants a Puppy, "brrm, brrm" for the book about car sounds that someone must have gotten him without my approval (I try to stay away from gender stereotyping in Jack's stuff), and a very specific but indescribable yell for "Llama Llama Red Pajama" (who yells for his llama mama on Jack's favorite page).

His sign language isn't just for regular American Sign Language signals, either.  Jack and Ben have created signs for sprinkler (clearly necessary to Jack's vocabulary as past posts demonstrate) and fan, and at meal times Jack now attempts to do the sign of the cross along with us!  And he's started bringing us our shoes when he's ready to go outside to play.  He's definitely communicating!

Oh, and yesterday Jack figured out how to turn on the hot water in our master bathroom tub.  The tub was clearly designed by someone obviously not considering small children; the knobs are on the near side of the tub, with the hot water knob within nearest reach and the faucet reachable by little hands that could easily turn on that hot water.  So tomorrow I'm going out to search for safety door knob covers in hopes that they'll fit over and stay on the tub water knobs too.