Gauka!

While I was cooking tonight, WeiJ was checking out the goodies in the pantry. I normally have the doors latched together - otherwise he'd be constantly bringing out items and leaving them in the middle of the kitchen floor. He was taking advantage of the opportunity tonight to see what was in there. Who knows, maybe that extra inch and a quarter lets him see up to the next shelf now! Anyway, I was working on a batch of chicken soup for us and was listening to him calling out the names of everything item by item. Ruhruh (cereal), ruhruh, ruhruh (yeah we always have a few kinds on hand!)...jsssss (juice)... gauka. I listened closer to try to figure out what he was trying for. And then he said gauka again, in a growly low voice. Since he said it twice I knew it wasn't an accidental babble - oh my gosh he was saying cracker! I turned around and sure enough, he was pointing to a box of Ritz. I made such a fuss over his new word (it seems like a harder word than his others and I *think* is the first one that isn't just the same syllable, doubled) that for the rest of the night, he was gleefully chanting "gauka, gauka" in that same silly growly voice. It's hard to tell who was more tickled by this new word, him or me!

He was full of new communicating tonight. I've been trying to get him to choose which books he wants me to read - partly a way to let him feel like he has some control, partly a way to try to get him to verbalize more. So tonight I asked him which book he wanted, and he pointed at his eye. Ahh, The Eye Book. After that one I asked again, and he touched my hand. I didn't get it, so he made the sign for apple. Ahhh, he wants "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb" - I missed the cue about my hand, but caught that it has a page with an apple! Poor kid had to think outside the box to overcome my cluelessness...but I loved that he went on to a second attempt to be understood without skipping a beat or getting frustrated. Such a problem solver!