It's funny, but on the development timeline (whatever the hell that is), Joe seems to do everything a little bit sonner than J.P. did. J.P. never really crawled much. Instead, at about 14 months old, one day on the back deck, he just started walking (I can see it now - J.P. in his "yellow and orange 'basketball' t-shirt, doing the 'drunken sailor' walk, reeling diagonally across the back deck from Jude to me and me to Jude, as we beamed with pride on a spring evening). Joey, on the other hand, did the "army crawl" at 10 months or so, crawling across the floor on his forearms. By the time he was a year old, Joey was crawling everywhere, literally scooting across the hardwood floors upstairs and downstairs, moving so quickly we had to keep a constant eye on him. Shortly, thereafer, he was walking (the "drunken sailor" walk, of course) across the rug in front of the fireplace in our den, hands outstretched over his head for balance. Awesome!
We're convinced Joe crawled and walked earlier than J.P. because he wanted to keep up with his brother. Everything J.P. does, Joe wants to do, too. J.P. laughs, Joe laughs. J.P. screams, Joe screams. Joe desparately wants to keep up with his big brother. And that's pretty cool.
Talking (or trying to talk) is the same way. As I recall, Jude and I (okay, not so much Jude) were a little concerned, early on, that J.P. wasn't talking as soon as we thought he should. Suddenly, at about age 2, the words burst forth like a fountain. It was pretty amazing. Joe has been "talking," already, for quite a while, actually. Granted, it's not talking in the traditional sense, but he definitely makes sounds (now words, at times) repeatedly that have a specific meaning.
Here's a vocabulary list, courtesy of Joe, a silver-tongued devil if there ever was one:
1. Ada. Okay, that means light, especially the decorative, unique (strange) hanging ball of a light upstairs above the stairwell. It's almost a "disco ball" light, gold in color, metal with lots of holes in it (ball shaped). When you turn it on at night (and the other lights are off), the effect is kind of dazzling and beautiful - dots of light, shimmering, all over the walls upstairs. "Ada" was really his first word. At night, before bedtime, I would hold him in my arms, turn the other lights off and spin the "gold ball" slowly. He'd look at the patterns of light on the walls, smile, and say breathlessly, "Ada." Every single time. J.P. had a very similar reaction to that light when he was a baby.
2. Pa-PA. There's a photograph on a ledge on the landing of the stairs (we have a several photographs there of friends and family) of Jude's family at Mardi Gras from long ago. When we take the boys upstairs to get ready for bed at night, Joe always stops and points at this particular photograph, actually points directly at Jude's dad, and says, "Pa-PA!" It's pretty funny.
3. MA-MA/Da-Da. Okay, that's self-explanatory. I'm not sure which one he said first (J.P. said "Da-Da" first and still occasionally calls me "Da-Da"). I can tell you, though, when Joe says "Ma-Ma!" he has a big smile on his face. That boy adores him mother.
4. Pa-Tee. I'm not sure how or why, but "Pa-Tee" means "J.P." Really, really funny (not so much to J.P., who says it sounds too much like "potty"). Joe points at J.P. and says "Pa-Tee," and we all laugh.
5. Och. One of my favorites. It means "I want that." Joe points and says "Och," and we pick up things until we figure out what it is that he wants. It's become a family inside joke, actually, to the point that if I say "Och," J.P. will say, "Daddy, what do you want?" Also very funny.
6. Down. This one's impressive, really, and favorite of Joe's for a couple of months now. If I am playting with him on our bed while Jude showers downstairs, he's perfectly content until he hears her walking upstaris. Immediately, she says quite clearly, "down!" When she walks in, he says it again, and she sets him down on the floor and off he goes behind her, like a duckling waddlng after his mother duck.
7. Dankoo. This, of course, is "thank you." It's been a popular word (or words) for him for a while. He knows what it means, too, because when we hand Joe something, he'll hit us with a resounding "Dankoo!"
8. Nini. That's "Mini," one of our cats. Joe points at her and says, rather emphatically, "Nini!"
9. Bye Bye. Self-explantory, but he knows what it means. Of course, he'll repeat "bye bye" all the way home from somewhere we've been. Over and over again.
10. Up. A little tricky, because "up" has two meanings. One - pick me up. Two - throw this up in the air. I like the second meaning, particuarly when we lay on our bed and he plucks the red plastic apple from his Nashville Predators' "old schooll" metal lunch box, hands it to me, and says "up!" He wants me to toss the apple in the air, which I do, again and agian. And it never gets old, because he loves it.
11. MOUO! My current favorite. I really can't spell it accurately enough to do it justice. Any time Joe is eating, though (and he's a good eater), he finishes what he's eating and immediately says "MOUO!" When he says it, his voice rises several octaves so he finished with squeal. Also, "MOUO!" is accompanied, every time, by Joe banging his fists together, making the sign langueage symbol for "more," which he learned from our nanny and friend, Carley Meade. Very cool and very funny. I really, really don't know how to spell it.
Joe is such a bright kid. He looks like J.P. and he looks like me and he makes me smile every time I look at him.
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