Duncan and Tristan Report

Sometimes the teething gods smile on our house and we all sleep for several nights in a row. Three or four days into one of these sleep vacations, I generally start to feel . . . umm . . . rested? . . . and I manage to haul my sorry self out of bed and into the shower before Duncan and Tristan wake up in the morning. It's lovely.

On one such morning, I found myself clean, dressed, alert and hungry at 7 am. So, I snatched a book off my bedside table, tiptoed down the stairs, and stealthily poured myself a bowl of shredded wheat. I settled book and bowl quietly on the table, and settled myself in a chair, also quietly. YES! I took a bite of cereal. I found my place in the Howard Zinn tome I'm inching through. I read a paragraph. Took a second bite of cereal. Two paragraphs. Three bites of cereal. Three para--

Thump.

Thump-thump.

THUMP!

A baby giggling.

Thump-thump-THUMP.

No, make that two.

I shoved a fourth bite of cereal in my mouth. Then I made a mistake. Still chewing, bowl in hand, I stood up and walked into the babies' room.

They almost always greet me with hoots and laughs and lots of jumping up and down in the cribs. But this morning the usual monkey-house show was accompanied by a flurry of signing, pointing, and gaping mouths. "Food!" "Cereal! Milk! Please!" "Eat! Cereal!!" "Eat eat eat!!" "Please eat!" And in no time flat I had popped a spoon full of cereal into each baby's mouth, right in the cribs, then transferred each child to his high chair in the kitchen, and doled out 3/4 of my breakfast in exactly the way that a mother robin gives out chunks of worms.

There was a sudden lull when things slowed down enough that both babies were occupied with chewing at the same time. I took a fifth and sixth bite of cereal, fast. That's when Tristan looked at me, shook his head no, and signed, "Baby food. Baby food." Seventh bite. "BABY FOOD!"

(They can sign very loudly.) So much for breakfast.

The point of this little story is not that I'm a ridiculously indulgent parent. (Though I am and I rather like it.) The point of the story is that Duncan and Tristan used to be babies, but now they're little people who will steal your cereal and can express indignation in sentence form. Wow.

They turned 17 months old on Monday, so here's a little summary of the things they can and can't do, and the tricks they've been up to, for posterity.

Signing and Talking:

I've kept notes of all the words and signs that I've heard and seen Duncan and Tristan use on a white board in the kitchen. Starting with Duncan saying "cat" while pointing at Simon on his first birthday, I've heard both babies say about 20 words correctly and in appropriate context. They are also parroting some little phrases, like "Get that!" But to say that they're talking is a little generous. Duncan knows the meanings of many, many words, but he really likes to pronounce just two: "Cat!" and "Hat!" He pulls books off his shelf, carefully points at each word and says, "Cat. Cat. Cat. Cat. Cat." He points at a dog, signs "dog" and says, "Cat." He calls his dad and both grandfathers, "Hat!" Birds, balloons and the color blue are all pronounced as a breathy "Bwuof" or "Bwu-un." Other words are rare and so breathy as to be nearly inaudible: deer, milk, highchair. Tristan rarely speaks at all; he prefers to hoot and grunt while signing. Like Duncan, he calls the men he knows "Hat!" And when you least expect it, he'll spit out a word or phrase with multiple syllables perfectly: "Banana!" "Get that!" "Kitty!"

So, our guys are talking a little, but they're not going to be giving any public lectures soon. At least not to hearing audiences. They can both sign MUCH BETTER than they can speak. They each use more than 50 signs on a regular basis, and they combine them into sentences. Granted, the sentences are mostly along the lines of, "Eat cereal!" "More apple!" "Drink juice!" "Please bath! Please bath!" But, hey. It's super handy. And a little bit worrisome at times, because their signing shows how much they listen to adult conversations. In the past week I've discovered that they know the signs for "pear," "train," and "dirty" because I used those words in passing while talking to Dane and then turned to see Duncan or Tristan signing what I said and grinning from ear to ear.

They also demand to have books read to them all of the time, and they are learning to crudely express which book they want. For instance, Curious George is the "hat boat balloon book," because in it George tries on a hat, rides in a boat and gets a balloon. Stone Soup and When I was Young in the Mountains are both "moon book," because their artwork shows pictures of the moon. Of course, Duncan and Tristan sign a lot of nonsense, too. Randomly signing wind and balloon is a near-constant pastime for Tristan. Duncan makes a sign that looks like leaf but doesn't mean leaf, and he also makes a fish/bird combination sign that I don't understand. They both like to make the signs for different animals seemingly randomly, and then throw in other stuff, too: "Dog bear cat horse wind metal outside." And any animal that they see and don't know the sign for is a dog. (Pronounced "cat," if you're Duncan.)

Watching both of them learn language is amazing. Period.

Crawling/scooting/walking:

Duncan and Tristan have been crawling really well since they were sever or eight months old. They are fast and efficient at it. They are NOT excited about walking. Up until last week they simply wouldn't take unsupported steps. They'd walk all over holding someone's hand, or pushing a little cart. But if they wanted to GO somewhere they would crawl, knee walk, or do a strange one-legged scoot-hop-step. I thought they were going to walk any day when they were 11 months old; by the time were 16.5 months old I was wondering if they would walk by kindergarten. Then I went to work for a day, they spent a few hours at day care with other toddlers, and behold! They decided to be toddlers themselves. Tristan took 8 unsupported steps the first day. (And, of course, I missed it.) Since then they've been walking a little each day. Not lots, but it's happening. They're getting up on their feet in the middle of empty spaces, pushing our hands away, and tottering toward things they want. Hurray!

Other stuff:

Duncan and Tristan are acting more and more like people in lots of other ways. They eat out of bowls and off of plates! They use forks! They try to put on their own shoes. They pet the cats in addition to (and sometimes instead of) grabbing and hitting. They climb things and fall off of things and climb things again. They point at their belly buttons, each others' belly buttons, and Dane's and my belly buttons. They bring me things I ask for. They roll around in the floor tickling and giggling. They are happy little hyena pups turning more and more into humans.

And because they are my hyena pups, I've gone on about them for far too long. Thanks for indulging me if you've read this far. I'm going to stop now and eat a bowl of cereal.