BeurskensBaby: Expressions and Gestures

At almost 22 months old, Tommy is so much more verbal and is really a riot - he has us laughing all the time with his facial expressions and gestures. He loves to give hugs and kisses - as do many kids, of course. He just started saying 'I Love You' when we ask him to say it. He rolls his eyes to the side when we ask him something, as if to try to act like he has no idea what we are talking about...but the stinky little smile he's trying to hide clues us in that he knows EXACTLY what he's doing. And when he is excited about something he'll say what sounds like "hoohoooooo!" and sort of purse his mouth into an "O", sort of like the one photo below where he is eating the ice pop. I'm trying to get it on video, because it will crack you up.

In church, when it's time to offer the sign of peace, he's got all of the adults smiling and cracking up because he will walk over to shake their hand or high five them. I love that this gesture on his part resonates with others - hopefully he'll be a peacemaker in life.

One not so nice gesture of late is hitting. We had this problem a while ago, and it did eventually stop, only to rear its ugly head in the last few weeks. Tommy knows it's wrong, and we immediately tell him, sternly that 'we don't hit people' and based on his response, which is either continued hitting or an "apology" of sorts, we will either put him in the naughty corner, or accept the hug or 'rub' of the area that he had previously hit. We have not had any reports from school of this being an issue so far. And he did actually bite my back one day over the weekend. It was intentional, though honestly I think it was him just trying to be funny and not meaning to hurt me. We were laying in our bed after he'd gotten up that morning, and I was on my stomach. He started out doing raspberries, but I could feel the teeth a bit and all of a sudden he took a little nip! I quickly told him that we don't bite people, even if we're just playing and fooling around, because it hurts. I got a hug and a kiss immediately from him.

But the funniest thing that he started doing in the past week is putting a finger to his chin/lips/cheek area and saying "Hmmmm" when you ask him a question, as if he's thinking about how he's going to answer you. I have no idea where he picked this up from, assuming it was at school, but it sounds like they witnessed him doing this for the first time on Wednesday as well, as the following was written on his daily sheet today by Miss Laura: Tommy was so funny-while reading books about animals,when he was asked what animal I was pointing to, he would put his finger on his lip and say, "hmmmmm." It was too cute!

Here are some pictures of my sweet T being cute...I especially love the second one with the ice pop!