Call It What You Want...

Communication is such a great thing, but for all the talking I do, I confess I'm not always so good at it. I let weeks go without even emailing some of my dearest people -- um, if you haven't heard from me in a while, I assure you it is not personal -- and it doesn't even cross my mind to make a phone call (gasp) to anyone but immediate family. Even they go a while without hearing my voice on the other end of the line -- but that's a hereditary problem I'm sure. The whole family has it. Even the ones who married in (with the exception of the Dunce's more attractive half) are not telephone fanatics. But this digresses from the direction I was headed.

Mark is learning the best ways to communicate. We will someday move past the screms that mean a variety of things from "I'm tired" to "I want attention" and "I'm mad for some reason." Ear-splitting shrieks are not my idea of good communication. "Use your words, Mark," we tell him, with little success.

However, he is adding to his communication skills. He understands the word "No" and generally stops whatever he was doing (momentarily). He gets happy when Daddy says it's "bathtime." He even gave Auntie Linda a kiss yesterday when I suggested it. Right now he is sitting on the living room floor with a favorite book (Old MacDonald's Farm), talking to himself and making nice raspberry sounds. This tells me that things are okay.

Yesterday was a breakthrough in some more obvious communication. He got fussy -- as normal -- about 5:45 p.m. I expect that; he's telling me he's hungry and it's nearly supper time (6 p.m.). When I got on the floor and encouraged him to play, he army-crawled in the direction of the dining room. I thought it was to play with the popcorn tin-turned wastebasket, one of his favorite diversions. It was not. He grabbed the base of his high chair, then the chair next to it, and stood up, holding onto the high chair where he would soon be sitting to eat. SOON being the important part. He was telling me something loud and clear. I even understood it.

I'm hungry, mom. It's time to eat.