Brainy Baby

Owen is so smart.  S-M-R-T, I mean S-M-A-R-T. 

Those of you who are Simpson's fans, that was for you...I feel like I need to update the last post since we have made major progress over the last week or so.

• Owen now knows all his numbers 0-9.  When asked, he points to each one in his number puzzle correctly (and we mix them up so he's not just memorizing the order!)  He can only say three of them though..."wuh" for one and "two" and he says "oh" for zero since I don't feel like confusing him yet on the difference between the letter "O" and the number "0."  I'm sure that kid at the zoo last summer would correct Owen if he heard him..."That's NOT a monkey, it's a GORILLA."  Little snot.
• He also knows that one finger up is "wuh" and two fingers up is "two."
• He knows most of the letters that end with "eee" -- B, C, D, E, P, T and of course he knows "O."  He also knows F but he makes the "f" sound instead of saying F, "ffffffff."  He is most firm on D, B, F and O.  We're working on G, but the block for G shows a pictures of a gorilla and when he sees it, he makes a gorilla noise instead.
• He has started saying "Mommy" and "Daddy."  When I sing the C is for Cookie song now, I have to sing M is for Mommy and he will repeat the 'Mommy' part, D is for Daddy (repeats the Daddy part), N is for Nana (repeats the Nana part) and B is for Bubba and he points to himself.  So freaking cute!!!
• He knows most of his body parts:  eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, ears, hair, head, face, belly button, hands, feet, fingers, toes and of course, "boobies" and "pee-pee."
• Animal noises are "woof" for Woof (dog), "uhh-uhh-uhh" for Ooh, Ooh, Ooh (gorilla/monkey), "oooh" for Moo (cow), "ah-ah-ah" for Baa-Baa (sheep), "ee-ah-ee-ah" for E-I-E-I-O (farmer), a raspberry noise with his lips for horse (which is also the same noise for "cold") and I think he might be trying to say quack quack, but I'm not sure yet.  He is squeezing his own cheeks with one hand and saying "wah-wah."  I can only guess this is duck, but I'm still not sure.  That is probably the most frustrating thing right now -- we are so eager to hear him use these words and start communicating verbally, but sometimes he is very specific in how he says something and we have NO IDEA what he's saying.  It kills me!
• New words:
• "Empty."  He says "dee-dee."  He's been using this for a while but it's really fascinating how lately he has expanded the meaning from empty food holders and cups to the back of his trucks and the bathtub after it is drained.
• "Stuck."  He rides his little push truck around and sometimes he gets himself stuck on something.  When he gets frustrated I always try to explain why he's frustrated, so I am often saying "are you stuck?"  All week he's been saying "ah-DUCK!" when he is stuck or when a toy gets stuck somewhere.  It's so cool!

And a big day today - he ate black beans and corn for lunch (along with his Chipotle carnitas.)  Eventually this kid WILL eat something besides pork, avocado and mangos!