ABC's...

My son, D, loves the show Super Why. And baby girl, B, has also become quite addicted to the show. As a matter of fact, she is barely talking and just started saying "spy" which turns out is her version of Super Why!

We don't have cable, and seriously I'm glad for it. During they day we only watch PBS. And I love Super Why and Word World. And those seem to be the kids' favorites. I remember when my nephew was as young as my D. He would be watching cartoons on cable and every single commercial that came on he would turn to my sister and say "I want _____ mommy!" Children are so swayed by commercials...

Of course its not just that sort of commercialism that bothers me and that I want my kids to avoid. Both of my children seem to be completely drawn into prescription drug commercials. When D was just starting to pay attention to things going on around him, he would totally stop everything and watch when there was a prescription drug commercial on. First it was just the Lunesta commercials, then it was Nasonex... then it was all of them. I was convinced that he would be telling people what prescription drug they would need when they complained of some kind of ailment...

Anyway, that was a serious digression of sorts... what I was really intending on posting about was the Alphabet song that Alpha Pig sings on Super Why. It deviates from the standard alphabet song that we all learned growing up. I'm wondering if that's going to start causing problems in kindergarten classes. The teacher will say "Let's sing the alphabet song" and half the class will sing the "standard" song, while the other half will sing Alpha Pig's version.

I have to say that I do like it. And like hearing the ABC's sung differently. And D has just started trying to sing it! The other day during lunch he was singing part of it. So I joined in and started singing it. Baby B was hilarious! She screamed with enjoyment the whole time! She was a riot! And then afterwards she kept saying "spy" (which is how I figured out she had been trying to say Super Why).

But the cool thing is that D has abcdefg almost down :) only 19 letters to go!

Vocabulary of B

Is it just me or do girls gain their vocabulary at a faster rate/earlier age? I swear my son didn't say more than a few words until he was maybe 2 or older. (Of course he pretty much went from one word utterings to almost full sentences about overnight!).

Baby B is almost 14 months, and her verbal skills are just amazing to me. When she sees daddy she will say "Hi Daayee!" when she vacates my lap she will wave and say "buh-bye seeya."

She will point and say "wassat?"

This morning she was calling to our little dog sally "saay saay." She can say the other dog's name pretty good too - "jo-jo." My son D named her when he was a little over 2 years old. Around the time my husband brought her home, D was saying "Jo-Jo" quite a bit. Around here, they call the potato wedges (like from KFC) Jo-Jo's and he really liked them.

And she loves her big brother "Duh Duh"

It's been quite interesting having a boy and a girl within a couple years of each other, in comparing how and when they reach certain milestones. I do know that all children are different and regardless, reach those milestones in their own time. But through my observation, there does seem to be a difference between the genders. It seems to me that boys reach those physical feats sooner than the girls. D was crawling, pulling himself up, cruising and walking much earlier than B. And I remember my neice, who is 2 mos younger than D, also seemed to reach those physical types of milestones a little later than he did (while her verbal skills continued to be way ahead of his). But on the other hand, it seems that the motor skills, hand-eye coordination and manipulation of fingers and objects happens a little quicker with the girls. And the girls also reach those social milestones a little quicker.

Has anyone else noticed these kinds of gender differences in reaching milestones?