Saturday, April 18, 2009

Out of the Mouths of Toddlers

In the last three months, Jack has gone from saying two words ("no" and "more") to saying two-word phrases ("no way") to trying to repeat nearly everything we say.  This means we have to be much more careful about our choice of words these days!  Jack's vocabulary has grown so much that we can no longer keep count of all his new words - although many still probably only make sense to us.  He tends to shorten his words to one syllable ("app" for "apple") although he has tried a few multi-syllable words lately ("wa-mel" for "watermelon" and "tatpill" for "caterpillar").  He's also getting better with using his words to tell us what he wants like "watch show" when he wants to watch Baby Einstein (He really loves that "tatpill" at the beginning!). Sometimes, we think he might be mocking us like when he yells "sit down" while standing precariously on the couch or yelling "no no" while drawing on the wall with a blue marker.  He clearly knows what we would say in the situation, but it doesn't seem to stop him! 

Still a voracious reader, we're starting to understand just how much Jack knows about his books.  He can name pictures out loud now; he actually tried to say "Mater Tow Truck" and "McQueen" today in his Cars book.  He also seems to know the first word on each page of many of his books.  If you don't keep reading fast enough, he will say the first word for you to get you started.  He also likes to fill in the words while you read.  Jack said his first full sentence last week while reading a Mercer Mayer book - a gift from Aunt Pam when he was born.  I read: "I wanted to keep some frogs in the bathtub, but Mom wouldn't let me." To which Jack correctly answered: "I so mad" minus the "was."  It's become his new catchphrase (along with "no way") and we hear him saying it on his own now.   This would be the sentence that our independent-minded son picked up from this book!         

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