Collin & Co.

As I mentioned in my last post, Collin loves his friends at daycare.  So much so that he talks to me about them when we're at home.  More on this in a moment!

It's important to mention here for people who don't know us well, Collin is very laid back developmentally.  Talking is something he enjoys doing mostly in the privacy of our home, and he doesn't care if he makes any sense at all.  It's been mostly hand gestures, pointing and jibber-jabber for several months now.  If he wants to say a "real" word, he usually can only say the first syllable of it!  We say "wa-wa" for water, he calls his friend, Ross, "Rah" and a schoolmate who is named Reed, is "Ree". 

Ross & Collin camping Mother's Day weekend

He also makes up words for items and will only use his made-up word, no matter how hard we try to correct him.  It's to the point where Jarrod and I now use them and other people must think we're ridiculous.  A hot-dog is a "ga - ga", when he wants to color with crayons, he tries to say "color" but this comes out "gu - guh" and inevitably sounds like "ga - ga"!  Our dog, Landry, used to be "Dree-Dree" and somehow, a few months ago, he decided he was only going to call her "Doo-Doo".  I do NOT know why!  He asks me on the way home from daycare each day about Daddy and "Doo-Doo".  In the mornings, he has to greet her before doing anything else.  Sometimes he squeals with delight as he says, "Doo-Doooooo"! 



Collin and his beloved "Doo-Doo"

 He also calls a cookie a "daddeeee".  Poor Jarrod usually answers with, "What, baby?"  The difference is that he drags out the long E sound on the end, and that's how I know he wants a cookie.  Chicken is "gick-en".  Outside is "oww - I".  Boo is "Bee!".  Snack is "nack".  I could go on, but you get the point! 


It's so much fun and so rewarding to hear him learning new words each day, but when he gets words wrong or refuses to say them the right way, I just have to shake my head and move on!


He can successfully say: puppy, baby, Mommy/Mama, Daddy, Mimi, Pawpaw, Nonne, Papa, dog, bubble, car, bye, go, no, uh-huh, pee-pee, poo-poo, etc. 


Back to his friends at daycare.  Collin has been going to this daycare since we moved to Searcy last August, and he has been with some of the kids in his classroom since then.  One in particular is his "buddy", Addie.  (Jarrod tries to call her Collin's girlfriend, but he's much too young for talk like that, so I refuse and refer to her as his "buddy".)  Addie and Collin are double-trouble.  They play together and fight together.  I had a teacher tell me once that she couldn't eat her own lunch without Addie and Collin chirping at her like little birds for pieces of her banana.  All the other kids were oblivious to her eating, but not Addie and Collin!  I think since her name is so similar to "Daddy", Collin can say it easily.  He talks about Addie all the time.  On Sunday, after church, we had lunch with some friends and on the way to the restaurant he was sitting in his carseat singing, "Aaaa-deeee, aaaa-deeee".  Jarrod and I just started laughing. 


Once we got to the restaurant, I was telling our friends about it, and I showed them a picture of Addie and Collin that one of his teachers snapped a few weeks ago.  Collin caught a glimpse of it on my phone and excitedly said, "Ohhh yah!  Addie!!"  Everyone at the table got a good laugh out of that one.


This morning when I dropped him off, Addie was already sitting at the snack table, she turned around and said, "Hi, Colllll-IN", and he grinned! 


Warms my heart to see him have this little friendship!  (And who are we kidding, gives me amo for when he's older!!)


Addie and Collin last week and when they were a little younger...presh :)