Mook Mook

My one year old son L has been learning more and more words. He also started to pick up some hand signals to further communicate what he wants - and he has a lot of wants! He is already such an opinionated little boy and I’m glad he can at least somewhat tell us how we can keep him from having a meltdown. Honestly, the period between 6 months to about 1.5 years old is my favorite so far and we are hitting right in the sweet spot of that period for L.

L loves books. Very similar to my other two kids. We didn’t have as much time to dedicate to reading him books as the other kids did, but we still spend a sizable chunk of the day reading to L. I felt like the more we spent time reading, the more he wanted to be read to. He also is slowly growing his understanding of the books he reads. It’s to a point where if we read his favorite Pinkalicious book, Joke Show, he does all the little sounds I make throughout the book to help him understand words. When I say something is fun, I scream weeeeee and he now does it too when he reads the page. His mannerisms are so cute.

When L wants more books, he also first started to say the word more along with his hand gesture. He then followed it up by saying book. It was fairly understandable and we were making a lot of progress in that area. After 30-60 minutes of reading each day, he eventually started to get tired of saying more book. He started to make up his own words and the words he came up with to tell you he wants more book is mook. Mook.

At this point, I’m actually impressed he is trying to find little shortcuts by making up his own words. Since I understand him, I do start reading, but I always try to correct him and make sure he says more and book separately. He still hasn’t kicked the habit and leans back on mook or flat out saying only the word more. It’s fine though for now and as long as he is having a blast reading, that’s what counts.