Month 18: Milesisms

Happy Thanksgiving! I’m happy to report that Miles is feeling much better. He still has a hacking cough that makes him sound like he’s got a nasty cigarette habit, but otherwise he’s showing signs of bouncing back to his old self. And that makes me thankful this Thanksgiving.

Instead of a long, boring, predictable list of what else I’m thankful for this year (health, family, caffeine, Tivo, blah, blah… ) I am going to treat you all to a list of my favorite Milesisms -- the funny little things that make my son the quirky little guy he is.

1. Here’s lookin’ at you. When he was younger, we’d show him a mirror or a picture of himself and ask him who it was and he’d say, “You!” Probably because we’d always point to pictures and say, “Look, buddy, that’s you.” Now he says “My-uhls” in this super cute voice. Only it could be a picture of a friend’s kid, his cousin, or any random baby and he still says it’s him.

2. Word scramble. I’ve mentioned before how he gets certain words mixed up (like “towel” and “owl”) and invents words for things he can’t pronounce (like “cuppy” for “pumpkin”). Once, C. asked Miles to go get the dog’s leash and he came back with a leaf. (It tells you something about my housekeeping habits that I have stray bits of nature lying around.)

The latest confusion is between the words “open” and “oatmeal.” So Miles now comes up to me several times a day with markers and Playdoh containers and begs me to “o-meal” them.

3. Yay for me! We could all learn a lesson from Miles about self-appreciation. When he completes a task -- say, balancing a block on top of another, or putting his books back where they go -- he claps for himself. Then again, he also clapped when I gave him some chocolate milk as a bribe to stay in the stroller while I ran errands. But, hey, chocolate IS worth applauding, isn't it?

I’m trying positive reinforcement in an effort to expand my vocabulary from “no,” “stop,” and “don’t.” So I’ll say things like, “What a good boy for drinking your milk” and “Good boy for helping Mama pick up the toys.” Now, when Miles does something good, like remembering not to stick his finger in the dog’s eye, he will tell HIMSELF he’s a “buh-boy.”

4. Is there an echo in here? He now repeats EVERYTHING. Which can be good and bad, of course. Today it’s good, though, because we taught him how to make a turkey noise. Gobble, gobble, everyone!

TIP O’ THE WEEK: Write down and/or videotape the funny things your baby says. You think you will remember them, but you won’t! I WISH I had recorded the way Miles first said “snack,” which involved scrunching up his whole face like he’d just sucked a lemon. Now he says it normally, dammit. :(