Alex the Communicator

So Alex isn't quite talking yet but don't mistake that to mean he can't tell you what he wants.  I've been told that when I was little, I had my own language that only Megan understood.  Apparently I would say something in total garble and Megan would translate and then I would shake my head that, yes, that is what I had said.  I assumed it would be similar with Alex & Ethan as I thought that was a trait common among siblings.  Nope - I was mistaken.

Don't get me wrong.  Ethan will still tell us what Alex wants but he does that all on his own.  He's not "helping" Alex.  For example, he didn't ask Alex what he wanted for Christmas and then translate.  Nope - he just looked at Alex and then looked at me and said, "he wants a drum for Christmas."  Unless he's telepathic, which I doubt, he just wanted Alex to get a drum for Christmas so he could play, too...and so he could have a little band with his guitar (that he asked for) and a drum for Alex.  When Alex tries to tell us something, Ethan lets him get it out fully so we can understand.  I think that's actually helping Alex communicate better.

Alex has a very expressive face - from his twinkling eyes, to his deep dimples to his cute little mouth.  He uses all of these to make his point.  He mostly grunts - and he has a few different grunts.  There's teh "uh" - low key, used to get your attention so you look to see what he has or to say "here, you can have this."  He'll use that calmly to make himself known.  However, if you don't pay attention, he'll do an angry sounding "ack, uh, uh, aaaaa, uhhh, ack, uh, uh" with no pause for breath until he has your undivided attention.  Then he'll point or grab or something so you know what he wants.  When you figure it out, you ask, "do you want up here?" or "do you want that balloon?" or "you can't reach it?" and he'll firmly - with both dimples showing & grin blazing, shake his head yes, vehemently.  He grunted last week at Eileen's house.  I looked and he was holding Amelia's rattle.  I said, "did you steal Amelia's toy?"  He grinning big and shook his head, yes.

He also has the excited, "ack, ack, ack, ack, ack, ack..." - just because he's so happy & likes the sound of his own voice.  He did this the other day until I thought I'd lose my mind.  I yelled (or maybe bellowed), "ALEX!" to be heard over him.  He stopped & looked at me and said, "huh?"  I said, "stop that.  Be quiet.  Do you understand?"  Without missing a beat, he excitedly shook his head, NO, and started back up with "ack!"  Steve laughed so hard, he gave himself a coughing fit and said, "well, I guess that answers your question."

I overstated, or maybe understated, the first part of this.  I shouldn't say Alex isn't talking yet as he does say "Ma-ma," "ba-ba," and "ba" (which is both ball and bath as he loves baths) as well as "buh-buh" (which is bye-bye).  I think he says "da-da" occassionally also.  However, he rarely does this on cue.  Steve asks him to say "daddy" and he almost always replies with a devilish grin & "ma-ma-ma."  Quite the imp.  So you see, he is quite communicative as these few words as well as the tone & type of grunt typically get his point across.

Even Ethan fully understands what Alex needs or wants.  If I'm in the kitchen in the evenings when Steve is at work and Alex starts grunting, I'll ask Ethan what he wants.  The answer is almost always "he's stuck" or "I don't know."  The "stuck" part means first off that Ethan actually looked at Alex and discovered that he was either between the couch & loveseat, behind the recliner or trying to scale the gate to the stairs and truly got himself in a position he couldn't get out of.  If the answer is "I don't know" - it could still be one of the previous stuck situations but Ethan didn't want to break his concentration from what he was doing to find out; or it means Ethan was "playing" with Alex & Alex was tired of it and Ethan didn't want to tell me that Alex just wanted Ethan to leave him alone.  With this response, I'll tell Ethan to ask Alex what's wrong.  If the latter was the issue, I'll hear, "I'm sowwy, Owix.  I'm done, Mama."  However, it's just the concentration thing, I'll either hear again "he's stuck" because now Ethan has looked at his brother or "what's wong, Owix?"  Then Ethan will tell me wha the problem is:

• He's dust tired, Mom = Alex took his blanket and paci to the stairs and looked longingly upstairs or he took the blanket & paci and laid his head on the couch.
• He dust wants you, Mom = Alex is standing with his blanket at "my chair" patting it
• He wants his "linus" (aka Alex's blanket's name) = either Ethan found it & gave it to Alex and the grunting stopped or that Alex is standing in the middle of the floor with his paci & no blanket near him & Ethan doesn't see it anywhere

Other things he wants could be just out of his reach and Ethan will tell me he wanted whatever it was & usually that he got it for Alex.  He's really an excellent brother.  Occassionally, however, the issue is that he wants what Ethan has and Ethan doesn't want to share.  Ethan then has to either get Alex another toy to play with or...SHARE.  That is unless that "something" that Alex wants from Ethan is Linus in which case, Ethan has to give it to him; after all, that blanket is like an appendage & you can't take someone else's arm.

So Alex is 13 1/2 months old and just about as communicative as Ethan.  This probably means that next year at this time, I will look very forward to going to work as that's likely to be the only place I'll get some quiet time.  Ethan talks from sun up to son down (meaning when he goes to sleep) - I'm fairly certain Alex is well on his way to that same schedule.