Baby Loves Disco!

Yesterday, we joined about 200 other parents and kids under 6 at the Wonder Ballroom in NE Portland for Baby Loves Disco! – an event hosted throughout the country.

Remember those high school dances in the gym, where a mass of people did their best moves to “We Are Family” in the middle of the room, while others milled around quietly nearby, and a few more sat softly crying around the edge? Well imagine that, but with the floor is covered in apple juice and goldfish cracker crumbs. Oh, and there are hula hoops and bubbles.

Oliver is a natural dancer (he must get that from Jenny), and no sooner had we set him down than he started his usual bopping in place, arms swinging and sometimes clapping. Other than getting bumped a few times by other kids, he enjoyed himself like that for almost 3 hours. He was far from the smallest kid; some parents brought their 3-month-olds, and tried to get their $13 worth of the dance experience with the little ones on their shoulders. I don’t think we would have tried this when Ollie was that age.

Of course I had to save my best "Solid Gold" karate disco moves for fear of kicking some little tot at my feet.


After the dance, we went to get groceries, assuming that he would crash once we got in the car and one of us would stay behind while the other got the shopping done. (This one-parent-shopping arrangement is something we turn to more and more often these days. Usually, one of us has to take Oliver to some remote aisle and let him run.) But even after all that dancing, he was ready to play and flirt with the ladies in the store, so we were all pretty tired when we got home.

Wow! I’m sure I’ll say this many more times in the future, but this stage of Oliver’s language development is amazing! Not only does his constant babbling have the rhythm and cadence of natural speech, but real words are popping up here and there. As we read about speech development, we’re learning that toddlers learn to use distinct, if not correct, words for items and general concepts. So we’re slowly understanding what he wants. He’s also gesturing aggressively now, pointing at everything, talking about it, and opening and closing his hand at the things he wants. (I'm having temporary problems posting video)

Also, for the first time today, he looked at a picture of a cow in a book we often read, and said, “Moo.” Exciting!

Now what does “Dee-daw!” mean?