Learn, baby, learn

I love how much Biscuit is talking right now.

Sometimes it surprises us how he puts sentences together or uses new words. It's been such a gradual change, that we almost didn't even notice.

Sometimes Biscuit will do something, and Jeff and I end up looking at each other, like, "When did he start doing that?!?"

The other morning when we got to day care, this little boy walked up to Biscuit and said hey. Biscuit said, "Hey, Da-wus." (I looked at the teacher and asked what was that little boy's name. She said he was Darius. I know that Biscuit knows names. He knows the names of our family members and several of our friends. So it shouldn't have surprised me when he called this little boy by name. I mean, he does spend several hours a day with him. It seems logical that he would learn what to call the little boy. But just to hear him greet one of his little friends was pretty cool.

He's also recently learned that Jeff and I have names other than Mama and Dada.

Biscuit doesn't understand how the baby monitor works, so he thinks when he wakes up in the morning that he has to yell to us to come get him. Jeff and I usually let him call us a few times before we go up to his room. Actually, we usually lie in bed for a few more minutes laughing at our boy!

So the other morning, we heard Biscuit moving around through the monitor. Then he decided to call us. He said, "Mama. Mama. MAMA! Dada. Dada. DADA! Kimmy. Kimmy. KIMMY! Jeff. Jeff. JEFF!"

It takes longer to walk up the stairs when you're laughing your head off.

We also love how Biscuit phrases things. He was sitting in one of our dining room chairs tonight, and he put his leg between the rungs on the back of the chair.

He said, "Mama?"

I said, "What, baby?"

"My leg fell down," he said.

He said his leg fell down. It was a very descriptive thing to say. His leg had fallen down in a way.

When he thinks he's lost something or somebody, he'll ask, "Where is ...?" and fill in whatever it is he can't find.

When he does find it, since he doesn't understand pronouns, instead of saying "there it is" or "there she is," he just says, "There is."

And to the people who say kids don't learn anything by watching TV, I say "horse manure!" Biscuit watches the Nick Jr. channel on TV in the mornings while Jeff and I are getting ready. Yesterday, as we were leaving day care, we were following a little girl down the hall. Biscuit pointed at her backpack and said, "Kai-lan." She's a little Chinese girl who has a show about her grandfather and her friends and all the adventures they have.

He also identified Dora on a shirt in Target. And sometimes, he requests a specific show, like "Max and Ruby" or "Jack's Big Music Show." He's picked up that much information, and he honestly doesn't watch very much TV. I can see how easily kids can become couch potatoes.

As I'm writing this, Biscuit just counted to 10. I think you have to walk a fine line between helping them learn new things and stay stimulated vs. hounding them into learning, learning, learning.

And hey, if he takes after his Mama, talking will come naturally anyway ... no hounding needed.