Vocabulary

I want to try to keep track of his words since I know there is some benchmark for how many words kids can speak at age two. I will be updating this post as I think of words I forgot to include and as he says new words up until his birthday. Note that he does not necessarily pronounce these words correctly, but he uses them consistently and in correct context.

Also, he knows and recognizes more animals than he can say - usually he just says their sound instead of the name of the animal. He also knows orange, but he signs it instead of saying it, and he knows red, but it doesn't sound like a word when he says it, so I don't count it. Same with 'seven'.
Mama
Dada
Papa
Grandma
Grandpa
Kim
baby
ball
doggie
cat
kitty
pig
goat
sheep
horse
cow
utter
bear
bunny
donkey
giraffe
camel
hippo
rhino
zebra
moose
goose
duck
bird
fish
people
hat
shirt
sock
shoes
pajamas
pants
shorts
sky
car
truck
boat
plane
bus
school bus
sun
star
tree
rock
sleepy
new
hi
bye
please
thank you
help
hug
kiss
yeah
yes
no
play
sit
off
fall
done
gone
more
again
away
home
table
door
house
paper
phone
book
light
hamper
cup
bowl
plate
drink
milk
juice
food
coffee
cereal
grapes
apple
carrot
pea
cheese
chip
cracker
toast
cake
fun
funny
up
high
down
big
heavy
bright
dark
cold
hot
warm
on
off
song
sing
clap
burp
coughing
poop
pee
penis
bath
potty
flush
eye
nose
face
hair
tongue
teeth
toes
feet
knee
head
tummy
neck
yellow
green
blue
purple
brown
black
white
grey
pink
one
two
three
four
five
six
eight
nine
ten
eleven
twelve
thirteen
shadow
fan
wagon
go
sack
nap
upstairs
soap
paws
pine tree
pine cone
circle
triangle
trash
hill
goodnight
wet
water
walk
piano
dollhouse

Hug two

In my post on language, I completely forgot to mention one of his favorite two word phrases: hug two. This means he wants to hug Thom and I at the same time. And more recently, he'll say it if he is hugging one person and there is another person, like Larissa or Kim, in the room at the same time. He'll throw one arm around each person's neck and say "hug two. hug two."

Language

In the last few weeks Aaron has been putting 2 word phrases together more and more often. Some popular ones right now:

Uh-oh fall (something is on the floor, maybe it fell, maybe it was thrown or dropped)
No fall (don't fall - usually he's repeating what I've just responded when he says "uh-oh fall" when he sets his sippy cup on the edge of the table and suggests it is going to fall)
Table gone (I took a side table out of his room last week and he won't stop talking about it)
Gone bye-bye (something was there, now it is gone, bye-bye)
Hi Mama
Kim home (Kim is at home - because she isn't here)
Sheepy again (please play the sheep song again - this phrase is often followed by "yeah" to confirm that is what he wants you to do)
Bright sun (he doesn't like sun in his eyes - always wants his sunglasses and hat when we go out)

I remember the first time I noticed him say "Hi oo-ah" to his monkey. It was 6-8 weeks ago. It took a few weeks before he really started using 2 word phrases more often.

His most recent 2 word phrase that I'm very proud of? Thank you. We had taught him the sign and in public if someone gave him something (like stickers at Trader Joe's), I'd tell him to say thank you and he would sign it (sort of). But then I felt compelled to explain that he had signed "thank you" since people might not know the sign for thank you, or might not realize his putting his hand up to his chin was that sign. But two days ago (at Trader Joe's incidentally) he said "thank you" twice, once when he was given some cat cookie samples and later when he was given stickers. I prompted him both times, but I have seen him sign thank you once or twice without prompting. And he still signs it when he says it. He does that with several words - he signs and says the word. And some words, like "orange", he still just signs.

He also says Grandma now. A few weeks ago, my parents were here and Grandpa was on the floor playing with him. He started saying "cowpa" several times to get Grandpa's attention before I realized "cowpa" is "grandpa". And until last week, cowpa also meant Grandma, but now he differentiates cowpa and grandma (more like "gramma").

He is learning new words all the time and seeing where they can be used. We were calling a tiny pine cone he has a "baby" pine cone and now he knows that "baby" is a synonym for little. So he will call little things "baby". Like a grape he is eating that is smaller than the others. He also learned the word heavy, but thinks it is synonymous with "big". So his bigger pine cone is called "heavy". His small monkey and big monkey are now baby and heavy. I adore this. I don't want him to grow out of it.

By the way, "fall" means many things to Aaron. It means something has fallen inadvertantly. It means, "I threw something on the floor from my highchair or car seat and now I can't reach it and want you to get it for me". It means he has dumped something on the floor. But oddly it also means, "please close the blinds" in his room. One time he was in bed and he was saying "fall" and I went in thinking he had dropped a pacifier on the floor. I asked if a pacifier fell and he said "yeah", but I couldn't find one on the floor in the dark and when I reached in the crib, he had his. So then he stands up in the crib and points to the window where we had forgotten to close the blinds (which we do every night before bed) and says, loudly, "fall". I close the blinds, he lies down and goes to sleep. Another time, after a nap, I opened the blinds, but it was too bright, so he pointed to them and whined "fall". That was when I realized that "fall" means make the blinds fall. And today, he found the recycle bin just inside the garage door where his dad had put it after emptying it into the outside recycle bin. He said "uh-oh fall" and picked it up and put it back where it normally goes. I guess it had "fallen" into the wrong spot.

When you don't have a lot of words yet, I guess you make do with the ones you know.

But his favorite word is "no". He will often answer "no" before thinking more about it and then changing his answer to yes. I guess that is what turning 2 is all about. Hard to believe it is less than a month away.

Quail!

I looked up yesterday to see two quail right in our front window. We have seen quail running through the yard several times over the years, but never so close. Hopefully some will nest nearby. I love the way they run through the yard, sometimes in groups of 12 or more, following one after another.

Playing with girls

Some neighbors were over the other day with their little girls, 2 1/2 and 3 1/2. They played doctor while Aaron looked on. He was happy just to watch, although I think they included him at times.

Helping Papa in the yard

Thom will often take Aaron with him to refill the birdfeeder out back. I missed a great picture of Thom filling the feeder (behind him in the photo below) and Aaron standing watching him. I tried to get them to recreate the scene once I had the camera, but at that point, Aaron was obsessing on a gopher hole in the yard. (You can see the peach blossoms on the tree behind Thom. Looks like a good crop this year.)

Reading on his own

Recently, Aaron has taken to "reading" his books on his own at times. Even if I'm not in the same room with him, I can tell that he is reading by his special reading voice. I especially love how he turns a page, then holds the book up in front of his face while he reads. I wonder if this is how we look and sound to him when we read him stories.

Baby 2.0

We are excited to announce that Baby 2.0 is currently under development. We anticipate a delivery date of October 7.
Yes, it is true, Aaron is going to be a big brother! We think he is up for the challenge, although there is no knowing how he will adjust to no longer being the center of the universe.

I am about 11 weeks along at this point. We will know in May whether Aaron is going to have a little brother or a little sister. Given that we've had the name Audrey picked out years before we even tried to have kids, we are kind of hoping for a girl this time around. But given that Aaron has been even more amazing than we'd ever imagined, I don't think another boy would be so bad, either. We'd just have to come up with another boy's name.

I've been nauseated and tired most of the past 5 weeks - another reason for the delay in updating the blog. If things go like last time, I should be feeling better in another couple of weeks, followed by a few weeks of migraines, and then a few months of actually enjoying the pregnancy.

Visit with Oliver

Last month, after having dinner with my parents while Thom was out of town, I stopped to visit our friends Chris and Jenny and their little boy Oliver, who live close to my folks. I had already gotten Aaron into his jammies after dinner and Oliver was in his jammies when we arrived.

The boys had a good time playing together. In fact, is was the most I've seen Aaron play with another child. Mostly when we have play dates, there is a lot of side-by-side play, or even playing not so side-by-side. But Aaron and Ollie seemed to follow each other around. In the pictures above, you can see how Ollie taught Aaron the fun game of bouncing on the couch. The couch pictured is actually on its side because the legs were getting a little wobbly. But on its side, the back of the couch makes a perfect seat for little boys.

Many thanks to Chris for taking these photos. I can't wait to see the video footage.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

This is Aaron in all the green clothes Kim could find to dress him this morning. You can't really tell in this picture, but those shorts are dark green. He also has a light green onsie under his t-shirt.

It's been way too long since I've updated this blog. February was a bad month for us all around. And I have a contract due at the end of this month that has kept me busy, even on weekends, which is when I would normally update the blog. I hope to get caught up soon. Aaron is growing up so quickly lately, I can hardly keep up with his new accomplishments.