Some updates

Robin has finally mastered "Dada!"

He's been calling Dean "Mama" for months, even though he knows the difference between us.  For the last few weeks we've gotten an occassional Dada out of him, but it's only been the last few days that he's using both regularly, and will even get us right when I point to a picture and ask "Who's that?"  Hooray!  Dean wanted this for a Father's Day present, but it came a few weeks late.  Hey, better late than never!

Robin also recently learned "happy" (that's a good word to know!) and possibly "up."  I feel like he might be on the verge of a language breakthrough, since I feel like he's trying to tell me things a lot.  Plus, I keep reminding him that words would be helpful when I don't know what he's pointing to.

And speaking of...

This is going to seem a little odd to the members of my family who knew me as a toddler.  Yesterday, Robin wanted to take his monkey to the store.  I agreed to take the monkey but told him it would have to wait for us in the car.  As we were loading into the car, I told Robin that another reason for him to start talking is that his monkey needs a name.  Zax told his Great Aunt Catherine his name, and Crikey the Croc told Daddy his name, but the monkey hasn't told anybody his name yet, so Robin needs to tell us what it is.  Then I drove off, listening to the radio and not thinking about the monkey.

However, I realized as I was parking that my son had been saying, (in a singsongy voice rising on the first syllable and dropping on the second) "doot doo, doot doo, doot doo."

Now, this may sound like nonsense to most of you (and yes, I suppose it is) but "Doot doo" was the name of my lovey:  my yellow blanket that was so loved it deteriorated.  And I probably named it when I was close to Robin's age--or at least at his current language level.  Now, it was several minutes between my telling Robin his monkey needed a name and when I realized what he was saying, but what if...?

Here's another funny thing Robin's been doing for a while, but I realized I should share it so I can remember that he did it:  When we put Robin to bed, one of us rocks him for a while and sings to him first.  Before the singing begins, the other parents hugs and kisses Robin and says "good night."  Robin typically says "night night" or waves, or a number of other things.  One thing we sometimes do is say "I love you THIS MUCH" and spread our arms wide.  Robin will occassionally spread his arms wide as well, but more often he'll grab one of his stuffed animals, take one animal ear in each hand, and spread the ears as far apart as they'll go.  "This much!"  "Monkey ear much!"  "Bunny ear much!"  It's so funny, but sure is original.

You can see more of this where I posted on Science Fiction Mommy, but Robin figured out how to get out of his crib so we converted it into a daybed. 

Here are a few pics of us putting it together.

This piano was in an otherwise-empty house that we viewed a few weeks ago.  It was horribly out of tune (and possibly damaged as well) which is probably why they left it behind.  Robin really enjoyed banging on it.  It sounded very eerie, like a horror movie.  Kind of creepy, in the basement of an abandoned house!

Two lawnmowers running

We went to Belleview Park early in the day on July 4th to ride the train

and play on the playground, as well as participating in the holiday festivities. 

Robin kept going "whoo whoo" while on the train. 

And he LOVED the bouncy slide, he kept signing "more" after each ride.

We went home for his nap, and then went to a party for the evening.  There were several downpours of rain followed by brief periods where it stopped (or only briefly sprinkled.)  We didn't see many fireworks, although our host lit several fountains.  Robin liked watching the lights, but turned back into Barnacle Baby when they made loud pops or shrieks.  He did pretty well, considering.

Watching a fountain that started hissing--a little unsure of that.