Speak!
Henry's at the age where he's probably thinking about opening his mouth and waxing poetic in some sort of coherent manner. At his 12-month checkup ,the nurse seemed surprised that he hadn't started saying "mama" or "dada" yet, a fact which didn't bother me much because when he's ready to, he'll talk. She asked if he had at least started imitating our sounds, and while at that time he was making some sort of sound most of the time he was awake and running around, he was not really actively imitating us. So being the good parent that I am, I lied and said yes. Since I'm confessing my misdeeds, I should tell you I also lied and said he was playing "pat-a-cake" (god I loves me a good hyphenated word), but only because I didn't know how to play it myself and I figured who am I to say he couldn't when maybe he could if it wasn't for his mother's ignorance re: games that require hand clapping. I do know "Miss Mary Mac" so I'll make it up to him later by teaching him that. He'll be a hit with the girls on the school bus.
For the last couple of weeks, Henry's been reaching for things and saying "nee-nee!" and "ner-ner!" with great vehemence, so he's obviously trying to get some point across. Lately I've been madly pointing objects out to him and telling him what they are to see if he's struck by the sound of something enough to repeat it but haven't really had much luck with that m.o. Finally, one day last week while he was in the tub (his most favorite place to be), he stood up to get a toy and flashed his pudgy, bubble-covered bum at me. When he sat back down I said "Hey Henry, can you say 'bum-bum'?". "Mum-mum." "Bum-bum!" "Mum-mum." And there was much rejoicing.
I could go on from here and say that everyday he's discovering and practicing a new sound, but then I'd be lying and I wouldn't do that to you because you're not my pediatrician. He's very pleased with his vocabulary of "nee-nee", "ner-ner", and "mum-mum", which he also says in reference to me (although to be fair, sometimes he just says "mum"). One day I'm sure Dave will take great pleasure in telling Henry that he used to call me "bum-bum".