22 March 2009

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.

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