Four point

Estrella

We woke Patrick up just before midnight on Tuesday and took him outside to watch the Perseid meteor shower with us. It would have been better a few hours later and many many miles further away from shopping center light pollution but it was still pretty and cool.

Patrick was pleased.

Pipistrelle

The people who built this house put a double-sided gas fireplace between the living room and the entryway. When we moved in six years ago we made the dual discovery that: 1) the glass panels get so hot they could sear tuna; and 2) the ignition for the pilot light is wired to a wall switch that even a very short child can reach on his or her tippytoes. So we disconnected it. A few years later we had a guy out to see whether it might be possible to convert the gas fireplace to a woodburning one; partly because I prefer a nice wood fire and partly because we are completely surrounded by trees here; trees that fall over. So the guy looked at the chimney and the hearth and the floor and gave us two quotes, one was for what it would cost to convert the fireplace from gas to wood; the other was for what it might cost to tear the house down and rebuild. They were comparable.

So we have this (temporarily; say another five years until we can be mostly sure the children will not get first degree burns from the glass) useless fireplace in the living room. Recently Patrick noticed its resemblance to a fish tank and suggested that we could fill it with water and aquatic life. Because it would be so educational for the babies, he said. Patrick has twigged to the fact that I have a weak spot for him when he is all brotherly so he tends to frame outrageous requests under the broad mantle of philos adelphos. Regardless, I said no. He asked why not. I said because the fireplace is not remotely watertight and aquariums require a lot of special equipment and even if neither of these things were true it is impossible to actually get inside the glass space without prying off the metal surround so there would be no way to get fish in and out. Finally, I said, nobody wants to squat in front of our fireplace and watch things flit around in there.

It is almost like Fate and Patrick have worked out an arrangement so that a week never goes by without my being forced, grudgingly, to admit that I was wrong about something.

Yesterday a bat - a very very cute chocolate brown bat with bright button eyes and weird webbed wing hands - got trapped in the fireplace and the children and I spent the entire day sitting on our sit-us-down-upons watching the bat flit around in there. He hung upside-down. He crawled on the fake logs. He ate a mosquito. We were all entranced. Well, almost all of  us. Edward came over during the initial excitement, peered at the bat, then retreated to the far corner of the living room and started reading a book. Every time someone would mention the bat he would smile and say "Bah" and point to the fireplace but he was not going back over there. I could read his thoughts as clearly as if he had written a treatise on the subject: maybe this bat was friendly, maybe it wasn't; seemed to him the prudent course was one of caution. Caroline, having not a single thread of wariness in her entire body, was beside herself with glee and served as a one woman bat welcoming committee. "Hi Bat! Hiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaeeee!" she waved and cooed. She tried to give it raisins by smashing them into the glass. She kept bringing her music over to share until I confiscated the player (I assumed that bats need sleep. also that bats have very sensitive oversized bat ears.) When she started to cry I hauled her into Steve's office.

Steve looked at the screaming Caroline and then at me, like why I was I bringing him a crying child when he was trying to work?

"She was bothering the bat," I explained.    

"Oh," he said.

Overnight the bat escaped up the chimney again - which is good, although I miss him - and Patrick this morning suggested we could keep hamsters in there. I actually hesitated for a fraction of a second.

Dah!

I always wonder when I read about other people's toddlers and their cutey-cute expressions (that sounded snarky but it is sincere. I really do love reading about other people's kids and their SCOOZmepeaz's and whatnot) whether they actually say excuse me please or, you know, scoozmepeaz.

Patrick had a speech delay of epic proportions. When we finally took him to be evaluated at two and a half he was below the fifth percentile for expressive language. The speech pathologist warned us ahead of time that kids often under-perform during evaluations and that it was better to skew a little low and qualify for services etc. I think she was used to parents freaking out when their child was deemed to be subnormal. During the eval Steve and I sat there while she had Patrick identify things on cards: "dog?" "DA" "rabbit" "DADA" "strawberry" "DUHDA."

She then looked at us.

"Is this about what you get at home?" she asked, delicately.

Steve and I were beaming, like, "Yes! Isn't he great! We are so sorry to be wasting your time!"

She looked at us with pity and then booked Patrick into speech therapy, twice a week. She told us that it might take a few years... .

As it so happens it was a terrific experience, our health insurance covered it, Patrick loved his pathologist and he was out in six months speaking mellifluously of dogs, rabbits, strawberries and the joys of selling seashells by the seashore.

And then I never thought about it again until I made a discovery during Patrick's weeks of fever and swollen glands. Why I had never before asked him to stick out his tongue I have no idea but it was only a couple of months ago that I did so and I suddenly realized that Patrick has a tongue like a lily pad. It is very blunt and the frenulum is connected so far in the front that the moment his tongue pokes in front of his teeth it gets pulled back in the middle. I looked at it and thought AH HA! No wonder he sounded like he was speaking with a mouth full of gumballs. My second thought was that I wanted to go back and STRANGLE that lactation consultant from seven years ago. I TOLD HER it was the baby's fault that breastfeeding was a neverending ordeal of incredible suffering and that he was always hungry and I never got to sleep more than an hour and I hated it. How we did it for a year I will never know but we did. Oh right, because it all got much better after eight weeks. Anyway. I still think a little clipping of the ol' tongue-tie might've gone a long way. But that is all wa-wa-water and buh-buh-bubbles under the buh-buh-bridge. I forgive. Mistakes on both sides (hers and Patrick's, with me as the innocent victim) no doubt.

The reason I bring this up is because Edward sounds just like Patrick did. Caroline says "Baaaa-tuh" for bat. She says, "Teeeeeef" for teeth. She says, "Gooooo nonnah buhleeduhnow fuh dassen?" for something; we have no idea what but she sure is a chatty little thing. And she has this poky pointy agile little tongue with which you could slice cheese. Edward's tongue is like an Oreo cookie and his words all begin and end at the back of his throat. "Cah" (car) "Crah-cah" (cracker) "dah" (dog) "dah!" (star) "kwah" (square) "cahcah" (circle)... huh. Edward is really into shapes. Shapes and cars. First he walked. Then he started running everywhere. Now he has his riding trike push car thing he rides. He rides from the living room to the bedroom, the bedroom to the kitchen... he's such a suburbanite. Why walk when you can drive?

Where was I?

Oh right. I cannot decide if this is just normal (or normal for him) speech development or if I should be more proactive this time and have someone listen to him before he develops his own vowel-based language like Patrick did: Oh mama nah ah duh ahn! (Look, Mother! The light is on!)  

Nineteen months: are they supposed to sound like Edward or like Caroline? Please advise.

I requested a book on seven year olds ("Your Seven Year Old: Life in a Minor Key") that Angela recommended in the comments on the last post. Today I took the children to the library and I picked up my reserved copy and Patrick got a stack of things that looked good to him (Asterix ho! some odd looking mouse-based comic book - not Maus, I checked lest I accidentally find myself trying to explain the Holocaust at 11:30 one night; The physics of compact objects - my mother firmly believed that it did not matter what children read as long as they were reading; Captain Underpants kills me, you know, but Patrick thinks it is funny.) I let him use the self-checkout machine because it is fun but as he got to the book on seven year olds his hand froze.

"What is this?" he asked.

I blushed. I actually blushed.

"Is this a book to help you figure out how to get me to do what you say all the time?"

"Yes," I said. And I narrowed my eyes at him. He opened his mouth. Shut it. Then scanned the book and I put it in the library bag.

I CANNOT BELIEVE I actually blushed.

Starred

Books. I saw a friend at the library and asked how she was. She said she was struggling to find a good book to take camping. I asked what she wanted. She said, fluffy? Light?

I thought for a minute and said, "Ohhh! What you want is 'To Say Nothing of the Dog'. Not fluffy exactly but very charming and delightful. And, incidentally, the library has a slim and campable paperback copy."

This was a book that you recommended to me on bed rest and it was such a perfect book for the occasion that I take great pleasure in passing it on (the recommendation; not the book. I never get books back so I am never loaning that one out.) I have an ad up for two books right now. The, um, Buttafucco story? Did I even spell that right? I saw that and had to think for a minute before I realized that she must be that poor woman who was shot in the face by her idiot husband's idiot underaged girlfriend. Did she stay with him after that or something equally horrible, do you know? I did get the other book, The Eight, out of the library because I liked the cover. I have read the first ten chapters and it's fun so far. I'll let you know what I think when I am done.

So I am reading that and a manuscript that one of Steve's business partners has written. I am taking a really long time with the latter because it's so far from what I would usually read (like oh my god soooooooo faaaaaaaaar - think serial killings) and I keep trying to decide if I should make helpful notes as I go or just get through the whole thing and then go back and be helpful. He asked for it, by the way. The help I mean. I'm not just taking a pen to his life's work at random. But a serial killer. Slow going.

What are you reading? Is it good?      

PS Good GRIEF. I cannot believe I forgot the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan. I just finished the first five books (written for young adults but who cares?) and gave them to Steve to read and we both enjoyed them so much we adjusted our austerity budget to enable us to order the next three books in the series from the only place they are available... Australia. Adventure books, well written and well told. Also, my dear friends down under, you probably know this already but DAMN do you pay a lot for your reading material.

PPS I have gotten into my food blog a bit and I am really enjoying it. I appreciate the comments from those of you who have taken a look, so thank you. Tonight's recipe: mint lime and vodka cocktails.

Comments

[Jen]

I second Tana French's In the Woods. Excellent and unputdownable. Another good one is The Help, by Kathryn Stockett.

[sc]

"150 words by 18 months": absurd.
The levels will depend on whether you ask a doctor or speech therapist or linguist.
15 words by 18 months is a common rule for the pediatricians, but many children do not reach that without needing intervention.
Linguists who work with children will say the child should be understandable to strangers by 5 years.
What you want to do in the meantime is up to you, but he seems rather fine to me. Beside the difference in boys and girls, his character -- Edward the Wise and Cautious -- may contribute. Rather like the Champagne French that people speak -- no French sober but a little bubbly and they are too,

[mem]

The way that kids use language is also relevant. My son, who is on the autism spectrum, used the "typical" number of words at that age, but used them mainly to label things. He was also very into numbers, shapes, colors, etc., but again, only labeling, not trying to communicate about them.

[lizardek]

I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak (who wrote The Book Thief) is also really good.

I have to disagree with the person who raved about The Fine Art of Racing in the Rain, though: predictable and amateur writing. If you like Connie Willis, it won't satisfy at all.

[Gigi]

Time Traveler´s Wife. Great book. The Sookie Stackhouse series, I got sucked in to this one after reading the Twilight saga and was desperate for some good books with vampires but without the horrible writting, it was worth it, they are well written and fun.

[Rebeccaof8]

Wow. I saw Estrella and thought this post was going to be about Dora. I really REALLY need to get out more!!! By the way...my recommendation for reading is "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb. Very long. Very good.

[Juliet]

I'm told (by a mom of twins, from her pediatrician) that it's not unusual for twins -- even gorgeous and brilliant ones --to be a little pokey with the milestones early on, especially if they arrived early and/or small-but-perfectly-formed.

But I second the get-it-checked-if-you're-wondering commenters.

[Mimi]

Loved the two Ken Follett historical novels mentioned above - Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. With all the curren interest in Julia Child because of the movie, I'm currently reading her autobiographical My Life in France. Oh, that we should all be so open to new places, people, experiences and food! She lived her life with such gusto and joy.

My two grandsons who are cousins, now aged 5 and 4, were very different in their language skills. At 15 months, one knew and said clearly the name of every Thomas Train including the very obscure ones. He also could say what they did...shunting, tendering, hauling coal. The other had a more limited vocabulary at that age. By age 2, both were extremely verbal with huge vocabularies and using multi-syllable words. At age 2, the less verbal child told me (talking about a road side sign), "Actually, Mimi, that's just advertising."

[daysgoby]

Seconding the Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Peel Society - very Rosamunde Pilcher - 'Coming Home'-ish, with gorgeous descriptions and post-war small-town in the country feel.

The Tenth Gift, by Jane Johnson. Dual stories of a young woman coming into her own and the woman who wrote her needlecraft book (in 1625.) Includes Morocco, (lavish, great detail) and days of being captured by Cornish pirates. Really good stuff (altho' I'm making it sound like a bad romance novel!)

Did Patrick ever read The Westing Game?

[Dara]

I third Tana French's In the Woods and her other one The Likeness.

[Joanne]

"How Proust can change your life"
by Alain de Botton.
Totally fun, light..ish - perfect summer reading!

[Cori]

My son was severely tongue-tied, and we had it clipped when he was a few days old. I'm glad we did it, but it didn't really help his latch. He has recently turned two and will soon be starting speech therapy for a speech delay not related to his tongue-tie. In our case though, we weren't surprised about the speech delay since my husband and I were both late talkers. He still only says about five words, but he communicates by pointing and using what words he has. For example, when the baby plays with his cars, he immediately charges over saying, "No go! No go! No go!"

[zerch]

I'm reading "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides ... it's a great read! My book club starts next month and I couldn't be more excited. I always love it when you ask about books in your blog as I get lots of great suggestions!

[Just Me]

Hey Julia, just found something Patrick might find fun. It's actually from a therapy catalog (I'm a therapist). It is a planetarium for personal use. And it's cheap $30.99! It's called the Space Theater Planetarium and is available at
http://catalogs.schoolspecialty.com/2199_integrations/full.asp?page=144

[Kathryn]

re: speech -- my daughter had about 200 mostly-distinguishable words by 18 months, a fact I am fiercely proud of because it was the only thing that caused my pediatrician to quit fretting about the fact that she was so tiny and not really gaining weight. "Well," she said, "You're clearly doing something right. I guess she's just been using all her calories to grow language centers."

On the other hand, my best friend's son has probably 500 words, again mostly distinguishable, at the age of three years. He still speaks mostly in two and three word sentences -- "William's sheep. Want William's sheep. No, no all done Lily's sheep, want William's sheep." (Translation: Lily has a toy sheep, and I want it. Take it away from her and give it to me.)

They are both normal. Lily is out on the edge of the front end of normal, William is somewhat closer to the back end of normal. But they are both totally normal. I'd get Edward evaluated, particularly in the light of his nursing and swallowing problems, but don't concern yourself overly.

[Ruth]

Forgot book recommendations. I am sailing through my vacation reading; my favorites so far have been Anita Shreve's "Testament" and "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane", by Katherine Howe. Must add that if you like young adult fiction, Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book" is a fabulous read.

[AnnaN]

Regarding Edward's tongue issue - I would chat with his ped dr. about this. My logic, which is not backed up by anything scientific or even a Google Search, is this: motor skills and brain development are ever so closely tied in infants/toddlers. Whether it is a mechanical problem with sight, communication, motor coordination, all such skills can be permanently retarded or disabled (in the academic sense) even after a physical solution to the problem is achieved. e.g., a child born with crossed eyes may no longer have crossed eyes after surgery but WILL have problems with spatial relations and depth perceptions if it is not fixed at a certain stage in brain development. Are there any such ties of physicality in speech to talking that won't be ironed out in therapy?

So, it it were me, I would talk to a doc because you never know what, if any deficits (or to what extent) may exist until it is past the point of no return. So to speak.

And yay! another book recommendations topic - am going to have to make a list off comments. Thanks to all!

[louise]

Loved the Eight when I read it years ago...

As for the John Flanagan books - try bookdepository.co.uk
A quick search there showed they were available there for quite a lot less than the Aussie sites. Book Depository has free worldwide postage and generally runs at 40%+ cheaper than we can get books here...

[Angela]

I'm happy to hear you were able to get your hands on a copy of that book and I hope it's helpful. When my 7-year-old saw me reading it, she asked whether there is a book on 37-year-olds she could read! As trying as 7 can be at times, it sure is fun to watch how the mind works at this age!

[QoB]

I second Diana Gabaldon, and Terry Pratchett's Nation. Do not, on any account, read Colm Tóibín's Brooklyn as you will never get those hours of your life back; never mind that it's on the Booker longlist.

[Kristine]

Does it ever become tiresome hearing how enjoyable your writing is? I hope not. I can't help too much with the speech question except to say my daughter went from saying nothing to having perfect diction at about 18 months and when my son came along we were completely unprepared for his jibber jabber (adorable though it is) Also probably can't help with the book suggestions, as I love stories about serial killers.

[guessing?]

I think "150 words" is supposed to refer to how many words an 18 month old understands.

[haus]

You might like "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" by Alan Bradley. It's a mystery with a precocious 11 year old protagonist set in post-WWII Britain. She's a genius about chemistry, has 2 older sisters, lives in a falling-down English mansion, and sets herself to solving a village mystery involving murder, rare stamps, and pie. Loved it.

I think I know the series Patrick is reading (shiny covers? little white mouse?), and I firmly agree with your mother.

Then again, I'm a librarian. Kind of goes with the territory.

Oh and yes, the Buttafucco woman DID stay with that man for a long time after she got shot. I bought the book for our collection. True crime circulates, you know.

[Chris]

I am currently reading Tom Robbins' "Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates". So far it is delightfully engaging. There is even a nice little aside in it regarding bats and angels - go figure. Just finished Camus' "The Stranger and The Plague". I needed something more...ahum....titillating.

No advice on the babes. I have learned - each child is their own little universe of thoughts and milestones and doings.

Strange - we have a 70s model buck stove in our living room. We have used it since the winter before I got pregnant. Alya has asthma....and it gets hot when we burn wood...and well, it is lovely, but impractical. A squirrel got caught inside one time. It's fate was not that of your dear bat friend. I still mourn that little squirrel. Why we'd not thought to net cap the top before beats me.

Try this book as well - "Ragtime" E.L. Doctrow. Haven't read it since college - 13ish years. I plan to read it next. Fortunately, for me, I have a terrible memory....so I can do lots of re-reads with no issue.

[Martha]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Jasper Fforde. His Thursday Next series which starts with The Eyre Affair, is great, intelligent sorta sci-fi, sorta fantasy, British humour. I have just happily discovered his Nursery Crimes series which is of the same ilk.

[mom of two boys]

I would get the ball rolling for a speech evaluation at 19 months because of the time it takes before you actually get the eval done anyway--you have your pediatrician write the referral, do the hearing and vision checks (have to be done before the speech evaluation), get your speech appointment, etc. It will take a few month to get everything together. I find the earlier the help the better.

My oldest son (9) had nursing problems and he has the strange shaped tongue too. It looks just how you describe Patrick's.

My younger son (4) had nursing problems and I went straight to a woman who specializes in oral motor problems in newborns/infants and got seen as a part of a research study. She fixed him at 3 weeks old...he has none of the ongoing speech problems that my oldest son did without the early 3 week intervention.

[punchanella]

currently reading 'the corrections' by jonathan franzen. A+

[Vanessa]

My daughter (now 10) was somewhere between Edward and Caroline at that age - she had a lot of words, but not many of them were clear. Milk was "mock," Barney was "Baweee," etc. She became much more intelligible between 2 and 2.5, and by the time she started kindergarten, she was almost as articulate as an adult. That said, it probably wouldn't hurt to get Edward evaluated, especially because he has an elder sibling who had speech problems.

P.S. I had a similar book experience while shopping with daughter at Target yesterday. I said "Hmm, look at that book; it's called 'Have a New Kid by Friday'," and she was instantly horrified - "Why would you want a new kid? I'm good!" I spent the next 5 minutes explaining that I was just commenting on the title and didn't actually intend to buy it and launch a subliminal program of behavior modification on her, though if she would like to clean her room more often, that would be great.

[Ab]

My favorite find this summer was Amelie Nothomb's "Fear and Trembling." Its about taking a job at a large Japanese corporation and failing spectacularly at it. I then tore through all the others available in English and loved the ones that are semi-autobiographical. She writes unlike anyone else and I gather is something of a pop star in France. I also just discovered "Diary of a Provincial Lady" which is wonderful, and I think everyone has read, but just in case I thought I'd put it out there. Oh, and AS Byatt's new book "The Children's Book" is out in the UK and worth budget busting for.

[minni]

the last 2 books i've read are "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini, and "Three Cups of Tea ... One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time" by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin.
The first is book about women's strength written by a man (same author - The Kite Runner) - just wonderful. And the 2nd book is probably the most inspiring book i've read in a long time.
You do have the funniest kids and are a great storyteller! Are you working on a book? if not, get to it pronto!
cheers,

[Jenny]

I wish I could discuss books with you. We seem to have the exact same taste (Patrick O'Brian, Connie Willis, Edith Wharton, etc.) Have you read any Laurie Colwin? To me, she's the perfect contemporary writer. Witty without being manic, wry without being distanced. A rare treat.

[Not My Mother]

Kathleen Tessario writes delightful 'chick lit' books which have a bit of depth, a bit like Jennifer Crusie. In contrast I'm sorry to say I found the Shopaholic books vapid and disappointing, and don't recommend them.

Just curious, wondering how a real-wood fireplace would be better than the gas one? I get that the glass gets hot but you'd have to protect the little uns from the real one as well, so wouldn't a fireguard work as well for the gas? And couldn't the switch be moved up? I've probably missed something, I do that.

[Debra M]

Hi there !

I just loved Old Filth by Jane Gardam if you like a crusty British drama sort of read.

Do be careful of the bat - they carry rabies, and can transmit via their salvia which drips as they fly and hang around. Stay far away !

[T]

It's funny - but sometimes when you discuss Caroline vs. Edward, I think it's very Sense and Sensibility! Have you ever made that comparison?

[T]

Oh, and I forgot to comment RE book choice. Our book club just picked I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and it was absolutely fantastic... I recommend it. :)

[Dawn]

I've recently finished:

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Excellent!

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. Such a good book and an inspiring story.

The Kite Runner by Khalid Housseini (spelling?). Very, very good.

How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely. Hilarious.

The Southern Vampire/Sookie Stackhouse mysteries by Charlaine Harris. Very good, if you like that sort of thing.

Are You There, Vodka, It's Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler. If you like her, hysterical.

I'm reading Admission by Jean Korelitz now. So far, so good.

[Cybele]

I have been working my way through NPR's best 100 beach reads http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106983620&sc=emaf and haven't been disappointed yet. Dare I ask if you have read the twilight series? You may think you are far to mature for them (as I did) and then sneak them to work to read at your desk (um yup) only to dissolve in a puddle of despair when they were done... okay- maybe that is just me...

[Kate]

Well, my n=1, but my almost-19-month old daughter mostly sounds much more like Edward from your description. "Cah" "Cook" (cookie) "crac" (cracker) "tishie" (fishy) "O" (elephant, seriously). She babbles with lots of consonant combinations and words we can't understand. Maybe that is the key to figured out if you need to get Edward evaluated? What does his babbling sound like? From my experience, though, he sounds pretty normal. I guess my other question would be: what's the worst thing that would happen if you had him evaluated later rather than now? Patrick seems to have caught up extremely quickly from what you have said. Maybe wait until Edward is 2 and you are supposed to be able to theoretically understand about half of what he is saying and see what he is able to say then?

Or maybe eating bugs has made both of our children less-clear speakers. :) My daughter is the one who ate long-dead bees not once, but twice.

[Cat]

As for light and fluffy...errr more light and hilarious, if you're into this sort of thing, Chelsea Handler's books. "My Horizontal Life" will have you crying it's so funny.

[Christa]

How about your recommendations for kid reading? My son is 8 and I am looking for a series. The Tree House books are too easy for him now, so we tried The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson), but its a little too dense for him to read by himself. I need something in between. For humor, he's already blazed through the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, so I'm looking for more of an adventure series.

Thoughts?

[Lisa]

If I have already posted about this book series, forgive me. I'm reading Dragonfly in Amber, the second book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. Love the books, but they sure can be slow going at times. I've been reading this book for about three months now, and I'm about 100 pages from the finish. (I think the book is about 1000 pages long.) Anyway, they're really good, I definitely recommend them. I also just read the entire Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris (that True Blood is based on). Not super literary but really fun and quick to read. And there are about10 books by now so it will keep you occupied for a bit.

[Molly]

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz. love it love it love it.
Recently completed and can't wait to read it again: Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts

For kids: the Horrible Histories series

[Amanda P.]

From the YA category, The Mysterious Benedict Society - then you can pass it to Patrick in about a year or so.

From the SF/Fantasy category - The Inda Series (which I THINK starts with Inda) by Sherwood Smith. Fantastic fantasy, with a semi-viking base. :)

Can't help with the speech issues though!

[PlantingOaks]

On Patrick and the parenting books:

As a young child, I was a voracious reader of anything within reach. I read all my mothers parenting books. I distinctly remember reading a book about seven year olds at around that age, a book on 'your strong willed child' (that was my sister), a gifted children book and that 'how to talk so your kids will listen' book (that one had comics) I also read the seinfeld, erma bombeck, and bill cosby books that were on the same shelf.

My general impression at the time was that it was all pretty reasonable stuff, and I thought (presumptuously enough) that my mother would do well to take some of the advice.

So, if he's precocious enough to take an interest in it, I wouldn't worry or bother being too embarrassed.

[KatS]

Tongues and tongue clipping. Most of the ENTs I work with will no longer do this and in fact deny the short frenulum being to blame for breastfeeding difficulties OR speech problems. I have not, however, researched this.

No book recs as you are my friend on Goodreads so you could get them there. Robin Hobb! (sorry, had to fit that in).

Katherine

[FIona]

About Patrick's tongue. My daughter Milla was born tongue-tied too. Apparantly here in belgium they used to just cut the frenulum shortly after birth, but now, for some weird reason, nobody wants to cut. I took her to about 5 doctors and the best they could do was cut it at about 11months, and put her completely under aneasthetic. Apparantly, the older they get, the more bloodvessels, nerves etc grow through it and the more hassle it is to cut.

What I found in my research, is that it can cause problems with breastfeeding, speech, dental hygiene (you can't pick the food out from between your teeth), french kissing, saxophone playing, ice cream licking,... and that it may be genetic.:) The frenulum may stretch, but it may also not stretch. I took the option of not waiting to find out:) Milla is completely fine, and starting to babble (13,5 m). The only snag is she's a sloppy breastfeeder now and NOW I'm getting sore,bleeding nipples...:) but I think it is because we waited so long and I get the impression that is improving. It turned out the whole length of her tongue was tied.

[Gillian]

I say Caroline is sounding quite normal... though it moves so quickly that I wouldn't be surprised if Edward is also considered normal, just not where C is right now. He could be forming words just like her by next month. I would listen to your intuition, however.

[chicago sarah]

Book recommendation: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See.

Maybe Edward is secretly from Maine? Or Boston? :)

[ksmaybe]

We just had our 22 month old evaluated by EI last week for speech delay. He pretty much sounds like Edward-cah, bah, da, da, ma, mo... It sounds like Edward has more words from your posts, but pronuciation-wise, very similar. Of course, we've got 3 months on you too. My plan had been to wait until age 2 (ped has been bringing it up since 15 months). Then, well, I got pregnant, and am due when DS will be 26 months. So, we bumped things up so that we could start therapy before baby rather than dealing with a newborn and the eval, etc. So, at 22 months, the verdict was yes, delayed significantly enough for therapy (1x a week) and some concerns about low muscle tone in the jaw. So, I guess the moral is, call EI if you're concerned. You already know the drill and therapy routine from Patrick, and it's unlikely to be a big deal. Or, you know, wait if you want :)

[Jana]

BONK: The Curious Science of Coupling and Sex by Mary Roach (Love STIFF)...not sure what to think; some of it is so clinical and other material skeeves me out, despite her humorous footnotes. And this is for an avant guarde lady of the night ;)
However, just finished STILL ALIVE by Ruth Kluger - one of the best survivor testimonials I have ever read; learned major life lessons (anyone can and not that "horrific" to the uber sensitive) despite being, unfortunately, well schooled in this topic as the granddaughter of a Shoah survivor. Hello; run-on sentence?