Things Daniel Says

He likes to identify things as either "BIG" or "tiny". Small is not really in his vocabulary. A few weeks ago he saw Jeff's pick-up next to a really big truck. Daniel looked at the big truck and said "BIG!" and then pointed to Jeff's truck, pinched his finger and thumb together and said "tiny" in a really tiny voice.

When a big gust of wind blows Daniel calls it "big windy".

He knows his numbers up to 10, can consistently count to 3, almost always skips 4, and throws his hands up in the air and says "ta-da" when he gets to 10.

He loves to sing "When You're Happy and You Know It", "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and "The Itsy, Bitsy Spider".

He gives fist bumps and then can "blow it up".

When we are done praying he says "Men", very matter-of-factly.

He asks for a hot dog at every meal...yes, even breakfast.

His favorite shows are "Ba-nee" (Barney), "Boo Boo" (Blue's Clues), and Junko moofie (The Jungle Book). He still has trouble with the hard G sound, so it usually comes out as a K sound.

All cars and trucks are either "fast car", "BIG truck" or "tractor".

If he hears a car horn, siren or loud engine, he will first mimic the sound, and then identify what it was.

If we are looking for something Daniel thinks that the thing is hiding.

When he finds something he was looking for he will say the object's name and then "is", like if we are looking for his shoes, he'll find them and say "Shoes. Is."

He is saying "no" and "nope" more and more often, but not always because he means it, and usually not defiantly.

He is learning the names of friends and family and he likes to look at the pictures on our fridge or on the blogs and identify them.

He asks about his best buddy Aiden on a daily basis. Yesterday he asked me, "Ain, ofer, park?" (Can Aiden come over and play at the park?). When I said "not today" he asked "Ain, jump?" (Can Aiden come over and jump instead?) Jumping is still their favorite thing to do together :)

He is doing a fantastic job with his colors. He can almost always correctly identify yellow, blue, purple, orange,brown, black and white. He is getting better at red and green, but still mixes them up sometimes.

We are very proud of and impressed with his communication skills. He blows us away on a daily basis with the new things he is able to say, do or understand, although we still have moments of communication breakdown.

I felt really bad about one the other day. We keep a couple of books in the car for him because he likes to read when we go places. A few days ago I unearthed one that had gotten buried under some other books and toys, and Daniel was really excited to see it. It was Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?. When we got back home I let Daniel play outside for a few minutes while I got Levi out of the car and unloaded the groceries. When it was time to come inside he really didn't want to, so I finally had to pick him up and carry him in. As we were walking up the steps he was pointing to the car and saying "Bom ber! Bom ber!" between cries. I had no idea what "bom ber" meant and I assumed it was just something to do with the car or his bike that he wanted to play with more. Because he was throwing such a big tantrum about it, I put him down for a nap right away, and as he was snuggling down in his bed he kept saying it. The next day we were in the car again and he saw his Brown Bear book and said "Bom ber!". I felt so bad! It would have been so easy for me to go to the car and get his Brown Bear book so he could read it in the house. Luckily, situations like this don't happen very often. We can almost always figure out what he's talking about.

Here's our silly guy with some of his silly hats on. :)