Now you get it…. and so do we.

For a while now, Ethan has been saying Dada and Mama but Eric and I knew that he was just repeating us and not truly understanding the meanings. However, the other day I walked out of the room and he started to crawl in my direction while saying mama over and over again. That is when we started to think that he was catching on. What confirmed it was when Eric was holding Ethan and he looked at me, extended his arms and started to say mama. It was so cute that he wanted me and actually made it known by saying mama. The best time is when he is crying and says mama. It makes me feel so loved that he understands I can help whatever the problem may be. It is great to finally see appreciation.

Even though, Ethan hasn’t directly said Dada to Eric. I think he knows who he is because everyday I say “ Look, Daddy’s home” Ethan will stop what he is doing and look at the door. Once he notices Eric, he will start moving his arms like he is saying, “ Hey, I am over here.” Then he starts moving real fast towards the door. I think it brightens Ethan’s day as well as Daddy’s.

However, since Ethan has realized that he can express himself through his voice we are also getting some bad behavior. The first time was when I had him in the bath and he wanted to turn the wrong way in his bath, so I turned him back to where he was supposed to be. After the third time of doing this, he looked up at me with his nose all scrunched up and gave a loud scream. I didn’t know what to do so I just stood silently but inside I was freaking out because my precious baby had just turned on me. Eric, who was in the next room, walked in and said “Did he just yell at you?” I replied, “I think so…or it maybe just sounded like a yell but he was just playing”. (Case: Naïve mother doesn’t want to think that her 8-month would already be acting up.) Well, what finally opened my eyes is when Ethan started yelling at Eric because Eric kept moving him away from the trashcan. Ethan just started yelling with this ugly face of anger. Eric, in a higher voice says “HEY!” Ethan stopped and looked down like as if he knew he had done something wrong. Eric and I looked at each other with the expression of 'what have we created?' He just turned on us overnight. Since then we have been getting louder screams of disapproval and tantrums that consist of him pushing you away or trying to throw himself out of your arms. I thought this happened around the terrible two’s; he is not even a year old yet.