Baby Talk

I originally started drafting this post when Andrew was around 16 months old, and it had a complete listing of Andrew's vocabulary at the time.  Due to the holidays, this one got put on the shelf and now, Andrew is closing in on 18 months and there are too many words in his vocabulary to try and list.  I would not, however, consider him an "advanced" talker for his age.  Yes, he has his repertoire, but when frustrated or upset, he still resorts to grunts, moans, cries and pointing, rather than explaining to his poor Mommy what he so desperately wants. 

So, rather than listing them all, here are 10 of his favorite words right now (in no particular order)and a little bit about their context:

1) No, No, No -  I completely blame my Mother for this one.  :)  Did you see the Modern Family episode where Cam tells Claire that they are trying this technique where they don't tell Lily "No", they just redirect her attention?  Well, we were kinda doing that with Andrew.  It wasn't really a conscious decision, it was just easier to distract him than tell him "No" and have the battle of wills.  We also were wary of him turning into "No No Andrew" like his Aunt who had been nicknamed "No No Amanda" as a tot.  Unfortunately, Gram totally blew that for us during our visit home, where she routinely told Andrew, "No, no, no."  As in, "No, no, no Andrew! Don't throw your Mommy's baby plate on the floor and break it."  And, "No, no, no Andrew! Don't bang your toys on the TV" or "No, no, no Andrew!  Don't pull Aunt Amanda's hair/Pop's glasses/Mommy's earrings".  Okay, so the kid needs to be told "No".  BUT, now, before Andrew does something that he knows he's not supposed to... he tells us, "No, no, no" complete with finger wagging.  Gotta love it.

2) Moon - Daycare just completed a study on the Moon and Stars (I know - Astronomy for Toddlers!), and now Andrew loves pointing out the moon to us. He'll exclaim, "Moon"and point to the moon in the sky during the day, in books, on TV and of course at night.  I'm thinking he may be an astronaut some day!

Love this face to the Moon and back.

3) Happy - On Christmas, we celebrated Andrew's cousin Brooke's 4th birthday.  We actually ended up singing "Happy Birthday" twice because after blowing out the candles the first time, we realized Wendy (Brooke's mom) wasn't there, so we had to light the candles and sing all over again.  Shortly after she blew out the candles a second time, Andrew exclaimed, "Happy!"  Now, he associates "Happy" with candles and/or sweets.  Right now, there are brownies downstairs that he points to and says "Happy" every hour or so. 

My Happy Baby!

4) Daddy, Pop and Manda - Okay, so I know those are three words.  But, look past that and notice how Mommy is left out?  He knows who I am, and I randomly get a Momma, but he definitely uses Daddy, Pop and Manda way more consistently and frequently.  I'm trying not to take this personally, but I will be sending him the bill for my impending therapy for this some day if he doesn't start saying Mommy soon!  Although... he did wake up two nights ago crying and saying "Daddy", so on second thought... maybe I won't push the whole Mommy thing. ;)  (Note: He called Daddy, but didn't stop crying until I went in and rocked him back to sleep.) 

I took the below pictures of my two boys during a hike last weekend at Del Valle Regional Park, about 15 minutes from our house.

 

5) Lawnmower - I mentioned last post how Andrew learned the word lawnmower.  The story behind that is during a visit at Grammy's one day, he pointed at her shed and she told him that's where the lawnmower is, and he repeated her, "Lawnmower."  Like, that's not a hard word at all.  (And he doesn't say Mommy!*$#)  So, Grammy bought him a toy lawnmower for Christmas, which he loves pushing through the house... especially while Mommy and Daddy are trying to use the phone (it's very loud). And he now insists on seeing our lawnmower if we're outside, and we have to follow Daddy as he mows the lawn.  Guess we know what one of Andrew's chores will be some day (hopefully he'll be a better driver than I was as a teen and not ruin any rhododendrons)!

6) Bubbles - Oh, how Andrew loves bubbles.  We now use them as a weapon against the crankies and have to hide them at any other time.  Aunt Amanda got Andrew a bubble gun for Christmas, and we purposely left it in Doylestown because we feared having to spend the rest of our lives blowing bubbles.  She also got him a cute bath time bubble blower... unfortunately, it's already not working (because Mommy got water in the wrong part) as Andrew is pointing out below.

 

7) Apple - For a good month or so, all we had to do was give Andrew an apple and he'd be happy to use his mouthful of teeth (12 to be exact) to chew away for at least half an hour... until we had to take it away to cut out the core.  Lately, he's been more talk, as in, "Apple? Apple. Apple!" than anything else and has taken to practicing his throwing skills with the apple instead.  My newest theory is that this is his word to tell me he's hungry (even if he doesn't want an actual apple).

8) Fish - When Andrew and I left for Doylestown last month, we left Mike at home with "Ish" the fish in a bowl and instructions to find SOMEONE to take care of the poor thing while we were gone.  Two weeks without food or water change is just animal cruelty, no matter how cheap of a fish Ish would be to replace.  So, when I got the below text message, although my initial reaction was "I'm gonna kill him," a bigger part of me was relieved that we wouldn't be killing our newest family member by neglect.

Santa came early!

When we returned home, Mike also decided that poor Ish needed friends in this big tank, so... now we've got quite the family.  We actually had one fatality already... we suspect Ish, but he's innocent until proven guilty.  The fish reside in Andrew's room, so he says "Hi" to them in the morning and "Nite Nite" to them at night... otherwise, this is more of Mike's project.

9) Up - Yay! Finally up and down have different meanings! The problem is, our ever growing, 26 pound, squirmy, handful of a boy has been wanting "up" a lot more lately... maybe making up for all that time he wanted "down" so early on?  Either way, I am keenly aware at just how weak I am when carrying him for more than five minutes leaves my arms feeling like Jello and my back aching.  I should really consider weight lifting.

Two of Andrew's favorite ways to be carried:

 

10)"ank oo" - It translates to "Thank You" and is said after we give him his cup or snack.  It melts us every time, because it is just so darn cute.  It is also the start of our own language. I can remember desperately looking at my girlfriends for help deciphering what their children were trying to tell me over the years, and it looks like its my turn to now have this secret language where only we understand what our budding English Speaker is trying to say.