WORDS and the weekend

After a week of reading our new "communication" book, and a bunch of opportunity for practice, I can already notice a change in the way Ben is communicating.

We had our first two word combination this weekend - "Go bye-bye".  Ben has also started to nod his head and say "yes" (after months and months of shaking his head and saying no even when he MEANS yes".  He also will sign and say "mo" (more) almost all the time (instead of just pointing and whining). We also heard:

Truck
Baby
Button

All words we have heard before, but seem to be of importance to him again enough to say regularly.

So sure, this could have absolutely nothing to do with our new approach and everything to do with this being the age where things sometimes just click overnight, but regardless - it's been awesome to notice a communication burst lately.  Ben seems less frustrated and more willing to get his point across to us, which makes for even more fun experiences :)

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a leg up on how to talk to their toddlers.  As I have mentioned before, being a first time parent, it doesn't always come naturally as to how to "teach" your kids to talk.  This has been pretty eye opening to me as to the ways kids learn and how to keep your communication with them at a level they can understand.

This weekend we found ourselves with a bunch of unscheduled time.  On Saturday, my mom and I started the day with a mani/pedi/coffee date (thanks, mom!!!) while Greg and Ben hit the park and grocery store. 

After Ben's nap, we stopped in at The Children's Museum for an hour.  Ben loved playing in the black light room and put these neon pegs in the holes for a solid 20 minutes.

 

On Saturday evening, after almost a year of being in our house, we went over to our neighbor's house (the ones whose deck we look down on from our deck) for dinner!  We had always been friendly with them, but we really had not gotten a chance to know them yet.  As it turns out, we have a lot in common!  She does yoga, knows all the best walking routes around our neighborhood, has great advice about landscaping, enjoys wine and HGTV, and works for the school district Ben will be in.  He works from home, enjoys grilling out, beer and yard games - and they have a daughter starting UW in the Fall who enjoys babysitting.  What took us so long to become friends?

I started off the day on Sunday with a hot yoga class.  After not taking much time for myself to actually GO to yoga lately, I finally scheduled myself to take 2 classes/week - which I plan to attend no matter what.  Ben took a nice long nap while Greg watched NFL training camp (boring) and I read my book.  We then headed out for the afternoon:

Lunch at Pagliacci:

 

A stop at Third Place Books (not pictured).  I picked up a book for Ben using credit I had from trading books in a few months ago while Greg and Ben rode the escalator.

 

I pulled up my iPhone map to search the area for nearby parks that we hadn't been to yet, and found Saint Edwards Park.  When we arrived, we learned it was a State Park and that we needed a Discover Pass to enter.  Not knowing how much we might use it, we just got the day pass...but after we left, we wished we had sprung for the annual pass.  Maybe next year.  It was such a fun park with so many things to do!

 

 



A fully enclosed "toddler" area of the park:

 

Nature trails.  "Walk like daddy, Ben":

 

A big tractor to explore:

 

We didn't even make it out to the lake front part, nor did we come prepared to walk on the bike trail.  If we go again, we will bring friends, a picnic lunch, and our tennis shoes to make a day of it.

 

When we got home, the boys washed the outsides of the cars while I vacuumed and windexed the inside.

 

Ben dumped out the water to let us know when he was finished.

 

Weekends like this remind me that we need more of them.  More free time. More time to explore new places but also more time to stay home and play.  When the work week is hectic and we are always moving from one to-do to the next, the feeling of having no where we need to be feels priceless.