New vs. Again

Along with Matthew's growing vocabulary, he's learning the difference between words and concepts. A couple months ago, we brought a coveted toy up from the basement (where toys go to rest for awhile) and as expected, Daniel and Matthew fought over it for awhile before Daniel got tired of arguing and Matthew triumphantly claimed it as "mine." Of course, said toy was overplayed with and ended up breaking beyond repair so back into the basement it went until we could dispose of it properly. Matthew has been distraught about this and for awhile, every time anyone went into the basement he asked for the toy to come back up. We've explained to him that it is broken and he'll just have to wait till we get a new one. After hearing that explanation over and over again, he has transferred the concept of a new toy coming after one "left" to replacing other things, places and people who we are not currently around. The funniest one came after dropping Daniel off at school the other morning:

Matthew: Daniel? Daniel?

Me: Daniel is staying at school for a little while.

Matthew: New one Daniel? New Daniel?

Me: No, we can't get a new Daniel. We'll just pick up our old one after school...

Of Course!

Currently if you ask Matthew if he wants something and he does, he'll say "Yes. Of course!" I'm not sure exactly where he picked it up, but he uses it appropriately 99% of the time.

A conversation with Matthew

Matthew is becoming quite the talker these days, and while there are still plenty of words he uses that we don't understand, communicating with each other has been a lot easier. We had this conversation last night:

Matthew (holding a play-food container):  Wranch! [have we mentioned that Matthew loves ranch dressing? and that he'll dip anything he can get his hands on it it?]

Me: Is that a bottle of ranch?

Matthew: Yesh. Saucsh.

Me: Is ranch a kind of sauce? [Matthew's love of ranch has turned into a love of all sauces that you can dip foods (or fingers) in]

Matthew: Yesh.

He then pretended to pour his ranch dressing on the floor.

Matthew: Fdloor!

Me: Did it spill on the floor?

Matthew: Yesh. [he pauses, pointing at the floor]. Mesh!

Me: Yes, that would make a mess!

Words

With each new day Daniel gets better at saying his words. He's been saying things here and there for the past month or so but now he's really starting to be able to repeat things unprompted. However, we don't think he fully understands what the word means that he's saying. Or, he believes that one word can be used to respond or converse regardless of the context. For example:

Chris: Daniel, are you still hungry?

Daniel: No, no, no. (grabs food and puts it in his mouth).

C: Then you're all done?

D: No, no, no. (pulls on bib to try to indicate he's all done)

C: Are you all done? (Chris signs "all done")

D: No, no, no.

C: Are you just saying "No" to say "No"?

D: (silence, puts more food in his mouth, pulls on bib)

C: (confused)

Then there's my personal favorite.

Daniel likes to grab everything (no surprise) and then throw it on the ground (no surprise, again), tip it over, or put it in a bag and carry it around. Obviously, this kind of behavior becomes a problem when he grabs things he's not supposed to...like the locked garbage can in the kitchen.

If Daniel attempts to touch something he's not supposed to he's told, "No, Daniel. No, thank you."

Apparently we say this often enough that now, whenever he passes by one of the "don't touch" things in our house, he stops, turns and looks at it, and says "No, no, no.", and walks away.

We can't tell if he's reminding himself not to touch it or its some kind of learned response...