Just Three Words?!

I'm trying not to freak out, here. I had to go through my old blog entries to confirm that yes, in fact, James' verbal skills are developing on par with my other two kids. He's just not keeping up with several of his peers (this comparison thing gets me in trouble EVERY time).

He's 15 months old and speaks three words: hi, uh-oh, and ow. That's it. No 'mama' or 'dada' or 'more' or anything else.

He understands a lot more than I give him credit for, though, and he has other verbal and nonverbal ways of expressing himself quite clearly. Pointing is his favorite tool so far.

As we round the bend towards 18 months, I'm starting to see some of my favorite developments come into play. Play, for one :) He's expressive enough and experienced enough with his siblings that he can start to play cooperative games like "chase" and "scream contest" and "keep away" with them. Up until now, he's pretty much been a big galoot that ruins anything Alice and Robert are doing. Not so much anymore. My favorite kid stage so far, hands down, has been the 18 months to 4 years window. Big window, lots of fun. 

At his 15-month appointment, James weighed in at 27 pounds (75th percentile) and measured at 2'8" (75th percentile). For comparison, Alice hangs out at the 50th percentile, and Buddy hangs out at the 90th percentile.
He likes being tickled, unlike anyone else in the family. I'm used to using tickles as a distractive deterrent (i.e. tickling the kid just as he/she gets the idea to climb onto the table or ruin someone else's game). Tickling usually distracts small kids enough to deter future attempts, but it only encourages James. He will lunge at the forbidden task again and again and again just to get tickled more. He baffles me! Sheesh.

Remember how Alice and Robert reacted to the "I'm gonna getcha" game? Alice would run away giggling for a few seconds, but if I got anywhere close to her with the growling, she'd burst into tears. Robert would run away, turn around, and then run right back and attack me. James actually runs away laughing and likes getting caught and running off again. He plays the game like it's supposed to be played! And he loves it. Imagine that. This kid shows me again and again that he's not a junior Alice or a junior Robert. He's his own little man. 

James enjoying part of his Grandma Poulson's Christmas gift: two toothbrushes at once.