Almost One

We have a budding talker on our hands.



He’d been babbling “mamama” and “dadadada” for a while, but a couple weeks ago he was babbling “mamamama” as I put him in his carseat, and when Adam walked around the back of the car, Agustin looked up and said “dad.” Then one afternoon a few days later (while he was supposed to be napping) he was babbling again, and Adam pointed at himself and said “daddy” and then Agustin pointed at me and said “mama.” My heart seriously flip flopped.

Now he regularly calls both of us by the correct name (and when Adam gets him, he often specially requests mama, which is a blessing and a curse…).

I don’t know what made me think that kids just say their first word clear as day out of the blue—except that everyone seems to know what their kid’s first word was. Whereas I am puzzled. He’s been making a “hi” like sound for a while now while waving at the appropriate times. Was that it? Did he say “mama” or “dad” first? I don’t know.

It’s now clear as day that he’s saying “hi” though. As we walk through stores he merrily greets everyone we encounter with a smile, a LOUD “hi,” and a wave. I knew I was going to have an extrovert.

Adam is awarded 5 points for winning the disposition smackdown.
That's also his jaw you see there.

The funny thing is that he is still about the size of your average 7 or 8 month old, so I get quite a few shocked looks and people stopping to ask “Is that baby talking? How old is he?” Adam and I joke that we should give his “weight adjusted” age. “Oh yeah, he’s seven months. Wasn’t YOUR baby talking at seven months? Huh, I guess our kid’s just a genius.”

The other word he says for sure is “ball.” He sees balls before I do and points them out to me. In that respect he takes after Kona.

Speaking of Kona, he's been saying "daw" and pointing to him. As an aside, Kona has become much more indulgent of Agustin, and Agustin still loves to pet him and now says hi to him when he comes over.

Agustin's meal-time entourage.

He also makes the following noises that may or may not be words:

• "WHOAH"=whoah (...I guess I say that fairly often)
• “Mah”=smack? (what can I say, he likes to smack stuff)
• “Buh”=bear? (while reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear)
• “Teh"=step? (while practicing walking)
• “Poo”=poo? (when I ask him if he has poo in his diaper—unfortunately he only repeats me and does not give accurate information)

He has six teeth now. They make him look like such a toddler. The first five came in with no noticeable issues, but the sixth tooth has been a bear. We actually took him to the doctor's to make sure he didn't have an ear infection because he was yanking at his ear and being more fussy than usual. No ear infection; just a terrible sixth tooth.

Five teeth can be counted in this picture.
The evil sixth tooth is hiding.

Lately Agustin likes to be chased. If he sees you coming for him, he’ll take off giggling and crawling as fast as he can. Only, he really does want to be caught, so he’ll usually then stop and turn toward you to be picked up. I have no idea where he learned this. I was a bit confused the first time he did it, but now I’ve caught on and pretend to chase him on a regular basis to hear his squeals.

We recently had to invest in a cage since he crawls all over the house while I'm trying to cook or clean.

I guess they call them playards now. Whatever. The kid was getting too fast.


We've also recently invested in a couple sets of wheels, which has allowed us to get out a lot more. We got a jogging (more like hiking in our case) stroller and also a Honda Pilot. I wasn't planning on getting such a big car for one kid and a 70 lb dog, but I really love it--we can easily get the stroller in, the dog, the baby, and a friend or two. Agustin has been doing much better in his carseat now, so car trips are seeming much more feasible.

Gus in his mighty Schwinn.

If I could find my Flip, I'd post a really cute video of him with his piano... (FOUND IT!) I started recording him because he was John Tesh-ing out, waving his head around to the tunes. But then the piano started playing the Frere Jacques tune. I sing this little pointer finger exercise with him to that tune, and when Agustin heard it, he turned around and showed me his pointer. I can't believe what a big boy he's getting to be!

He loves fish. Ironically, it's also one of his favorite meals. Also, please note the developing baby 'fro. I totally won the genetic smackdown in that arena.