This and That

Nathan has been using these words frequently, as of late, to let us know what he wants. Or what he wants to know about. He's also started pronouncing the "th" sound properly, as opposed to the "d" sound he started out with. This has given him more reason to try out "this" and "that". (Although, "dis" and "dat" are perfectly acceptable in most of South Central Louisiana)

For example, Nathan wanted me to play a CD for him recently. I asked him which one. He replied, "that one", and pointed to a stack. I popped one of the first in the stack into the player and pressed play. It wasn't long before Nathan was unhappy with the selection. "What do you want to hear?" I asked. To which he replied, "Want this one." After a few this and that attempts, we finally landed on one he liked. Ok, so actually, he didn't want that one either, but he got used to it after I explained, "You can either turn it off, or you can listen to this one." (Or, was it that one?)

Nathan also likes to know what things are and do. Lately, he'll ask "what's that?!" whenever he sees something new and out of reach. He also knows to say, "what's this?" when it's in his hand. He even copies my words and hand gestures, as when he recently walked into his room and found toys scattered across the floor. He threw his hands up in the air, palms up, and moved his head for emphasis saying, "What's all this mess?!"