Where's Your Inside Voice?

C bas begun to talk more.

Well, I use the term "talk" rather loosely. It's more like babbling with inflection.

Whatever you want to call it, he's learning to communicate vocally. And with pointing, signs, and gestures.

Most of it consists of pointing along with with some version of "uh", "eh", "mmm", and "ah". But he's just recently begun to blend sounds too, though it's hard to actually figure out how to type how it sounds.

C asks for his music to be turned on in the mornings while he plays in his room. When he's eating, he can indicate what food he wants more of. He can, of course, indicate his unhappiness in many other ways.

And he can say "mama" and dada", but he doesn't call us by those names. No, the only one he has an actual name for is Argus.

That's right. The dog gets a name. I don't.

I think Argus has figured out his new name, which happens to be something like, "Aah!" He was outside the other day when C started looking for him. So C started calling his name, "Aah! Aah!" and in comes Argus to see what C wanted. He promptly turned around and went back outside when he realized C had no food or other fun thing to offer.

I've made a little photo album for C of family members and friends. Of course, it includes Argus. And that seems to be his favorite, besides himself. He blows past everyone else, stops at the picture of Argus and says, "Aah!"

Yes, the exclamation point is necessary. Because C obviously doesn't get that dogs have very good hearing.

In other words, I don't think C's discovered his "inside voice" yet.

He also surprised me the other day by recognizing himself in a picture and saying, "be-be". I thought it was a fluke, but later in the day when he saw a picture of another baby, he said it again. And again later when he saw another picture of himself.

"Bebe." It sounds so sweet and soft.

I think he also tries to say, "hot dog". The boy loves him some hot dog. Of course, it sounds more like, "dou dough." But hey, at least he tries. And I think "yo" for "yogurt" is not far off.

I'm going to be in trouble when he finally does start talking. There's no telling what he will start saying.

I'm sure there are many embarrassing moments to come. Especially since he likes to yell.