Frontier of Communication

There I am, bleary eyed before I have had my cup of tea, Champ is wailing and pulling at my leg. He is clearly starving and needs breakfast. Right now. 'Aaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy' is all I can hear. I am trying to put together his breakfast while reassuring him that Mummy is hurrying and he can eat soon.

This is only one of many toddler tantrums that I have started to notice, each day.

Just this morning during breakfast tantrums were thrown because:

• Champ wanted a banana from the fruit bowl rather than his cereal - 'b' 'b' he squealed until I realised what he wanted;
• Champ wanted his cereal, now - 'ga' 'ga' he cried while pointing madly towards the table; and
  
• my toast looked tasty - 'br' 'br' how could I not realise he wanted bread?

It is hard not to feel stressed by 7.30 a.m. when you have witnessed so many toddler tantrums.

But then, he signs to me that he wants some water (one of the baby signs he picked up straight away, we have only been doing baby signing for a few months) and I hand him a water bottle and he smiles up at me.

Cowboy kisses him on the head and walks out the back door 'Dada' he cries in delight and then hold his hand out to motion 'where did he go?' when he goes beyond Champ's field of vision.

'Br' 'Br' he sees a bird outside. 'Bk' 'Bk' read me a book, Mummy. It is constant, Champ is communicating with us and telling us about his world: his wants and what he finds interesting enough to comment on.

At this age, Champ understands so much of what we say:

• 'Are you hungry?' Nod, nod, nod (a new trick he learned last weekend);
• 'Where is bunny rabbit?' Champ toddles off looking for his favorite stuffed toy;
• 'Don't put that in your mouth, give it to me.' and Champ will stop trying to eat the leaf/rock/fluff/etc and reach up to give it to me.

I guess it is only to be expected that as he is at the frontier of communication, he will feel frustrated occasionally because he can't express to us what he means.

Just remind me of that at 7.00 a.m. tomorrow morning when I have a wailing toddler tugging at my leg.