Jamie is just starting to try to link 2 or 3 words together at a time now. It reminds me a great deal of charades b/c he isn't exactly using 2 or 3 actual spoken words, but usually one or two spoken words (never in sentence order), some gesturing and pointing in the place of other words and sound effects. It's quite amusing and I'm getting a real kick out of it.
For instance, a few days ago we went to a playgroup at someone's house w/ other 2 year olds. Jamie picked up a stuffed tiger and was carrying it around. It was the first time the host's 2 year old son had children coming to his house to play and he wasn't so sure he wanted to share apparently. Jamie wandered into another room with the stuffed tiger and I heard a boy crying after a couple of minutes (it wasn't Jamie.) Jamie came running into the room looking a bit concerned, still clutching the tiger. He said to me, " Baby!! Baby!!" and pointing towards the other room. I said, " Do you mean a boy or a girl?" "Boy!" he said, " Boy! Puuuuuuuuulll! (and he's saying puuuuuuuu as he's demonstrating with his hands a pulling action) then he pointed to the stuffed tiger. " I had no idea what he was saying, then it clicked. "Oh, Jamie! You mean the boy tried to take the tiger away and pulled it?" He nodded his head vigorously, pleased that I understood him. Ah! That is why the boy was crying. He couldn't get his toy tiger back from Jamie. ;-) This 'conversation' with Jamie might not seem like much sentence-wise but it's one of the first times he's trying to put more than one word together! When we were ready to leave the playdate, Jamie said bye to the other moms then turned to them and said, " Cah (car)! Then he made a brrrrrrrrrrr sound effect with his lips vibrating, then he said, " Mama." I said, " You're telling the ladies that we are going to the car and mama will drive?" He said, " Yeah!"
The first time I heard him put two words together since way back when he was first home (when he said two two word sentences only a few weeks after getting home then never did again until the other day) was when we were watching his favorite show, Caillou. It's about a little 4 year old boy and his family. Jamie adores Caillou. Sometimes Caillou imagines he's doing all kinds of things like being a car racer, etc. We were watching an episode over breakfast a few days ago and as soon as Caillou started to imagine himself driving a race car in a race, Jamie shouted, " Go Caillou! Go!" I had to laugh. He does things when motivated. His first 'sentence' in months is about his favorite tv character. It figures, lol.
Jamie is also really crazy about Bob the Builder right now. He loves to pretend he is either Caillou or Bob. When he pretends he is Bob he pats himself or says, " Me." Then he says, " Bah (Bob)." Then he says, " Hah (hat) and pats his head (for the hard hat Bob wears.) Then he goes off and pretends to fix something or build a road.
Another thing Jamie has enjoyed nearly every day for the past month or so is pretending to be a fire fighter rescuing a cat from a tree. He will take his fireman toy and walk it up the ladder (and if the toy is not available he'll use his fingers like legs going up the ladder) and he'll pretend to rescue an imaginary cat (or a fingerpuppet my cousin gave us.)
I love Jamie's realism or maybe it's humor? Recently he was playing with a little toy piano about 3 inches long and a plastic pig from his farm. He wanted the pig to lift and carry the piano somewhere so he pretended to hoist the piano onto the pig's shoulders and even grunted with effort like the pig was having to labor under the weight of the piano. I love when Jamie throws in the sound effects. ;-)
Oh, one last amusing thing Jamie did. Getting into the car to go to that playgroup the other day, as I was lifting Jamie in (hoisting would be a better word b/c that kid is solid!) I said, " Jamie. Are you a sack of potatoes?" And he patted himself and said, " Fry?" I laughed and said, " Oh. You're a French Fry?" He said, " Yeah." and smiled. I told him I would dip him in ketchup and I pretended to nibble on his hand. He wanted to do the same thing so he pretended to nibble on his other hand and then he immediately gave me a thumbs up with his thumbs, lol! Evidentally he tasted great.
