Saturday, October 24, 2009

Talk to Me Baby Boy!

Let me start by prefacing this with the following: I am not a developmental psychologist, or a clinician of any kind. The following post solely reflects my personal experiences with children of both genders.

On May 6, 2008 at 4:19 am, I gave birth to a baby boy. He is now 17 months old. When we go to the playground we run into children who are not boys; they are sweet little baby girls.

One fine day, we were at our favorite playground and my son enjoying some time in the baby swing.


In the swing next to us was a baby girl. She was talking up a storm. "Apple.." "Hi..." "Bye Bye.." "Mama.." "Shoe!"She couldn't contain her verbosity. I asked her babysitter how old she was, out of sheer curiosity.

"14 months." She replied.

I wanted to bury my head in the playground asphalt. My son, at 17 months, still babbles nonsense words, "ba ba," "da da" na na" etc. He has a few nonsense words that represent real things, i.e."yo yo" means yogurt. But mainly he just babbles.

I am so anxious for my son to talk. My anxiety is heightened by meeting so many loquacious baby girls who talk at an extraordinary young age like 13 - 14 months old.

When I was at my friend Tara's son's one year old birthday party, I was talking to her brother who has three kids. I asked him when his kids started talking.

"The girls...you can't shut them up...the boys talk when they feel like it!" He replied.

Now I know this is a vast generalization, but from my experience I have found it to be right on the money. Baby girls are the talkers! Meanwhile I am waiting with bated breath for my son to blurt out some "real words."

All I know is when a 14 month old girl tells me what the windmill represents in the novel "Animal Farm." I will officially lose my mind.

6 comments:

  1. Hey girl, I feel you. It seems that EVERY baby advances faster than my own! Zalah is starting to say words, but it took a while. She's 21 months today and they are still words that only we understand. Don't worry too much, each child is different. Though girls might advance sooner for some things and boys for others, I'm sure you remember the achievments of other children more than their shortcomings.

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  2. That's so true! It's so easy to see what other kids are good at because you can take a step back and look at them objectively. You're not with them every single day like you are with your own kid.

    Wow! I can't believe that Zalah is 21 months! That's just insanity. I heard through the Abramowitz grapevine that she says "olive," "cake" and "cookie." Is it true?

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  3. O yea, she says a lot. Some things I know perfectly like "outside" because its her favorite thing, but others like 'shoes' and 'juice' sound the same if its not right in front of her (or me). She also says some stuff that leaves me CLUELESS and then she has a tantrum!!! Lyla doesn't sleep for sh*t! Her inner Capricorn comes out at night and she now screams for hours! Goodbye sleeping for 6! Those days are long gone. Then Z in the day time, well, she's almost 2, you know what I mean! Lol. My mother says they are horrible.

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  4. It's so frustrating when they are saying something and you don't know what they are talking about. And then Ari acts like "Mom! What the eff?! Why don't you get it??"

    Lyla! You need to let your mama sleep!!

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  5. I can't believe he's gotten so big already. It seems like it was only yesterday that he was a little peanut swaddled in blankets. And now he's a race car child running around. But don't be worried, according to my mom I didn't say anything meaningful until I was 21.

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