I've always been impressed with language development in children.
If I compare how well Big Brother talks at age 4 to how much French I could speak after 4 years of study in high school, I can't help but laugh at myself. Of course, "complete immersion" in a language makes a huge difference, but I still find his acquisition of language impressive.
And so, I'm really enjoying witnessing Little Brother's language growing by leaps and bounds on a seemingly daily basis. He still uses some baby sign language, but he mostly prefers to talk at this point.
I guess the pressure to "keep pace" with Big Brother has accelerated his spoken language skills. It's also a powerful reminder that our children are listening to every word we say, and echoing them.
I wanted to share some of Little Brother's current favorite phrases:
"No, mine!" (Self-explanatory)
"No my ride!" (When Big Brother is driving their little ride-in car and he wants a turn. Little Brother loves the "David" books (by David Shannon), which is where he picked up the word 'ride'.)
"Quack quack" (He loves the ducks in the little man-made lake in our neighborhood.)
"Chocka juice" (He's aware of Big Brother's love of "chocolate milk", even though he's stuck drinking whole.)
"Fuh fry" ("French fry." Anything that is cyllindrical--fries, carrots, pretzel sticks--is a fuh fry.)
"Okay?!?" (He exclaims this whenever we comb the dog's fur to make sure his companion is alright.)
"Tank-u!" (We're excited that this one has caught on.)
And just a few favorite words:
"Two" (He always requests one of everything for each hand. When Mom-E would give him a cracker, he'd fuss until he got a second for the other hand. Mom-E started asking him "do you want two?", which has caught on.)
"Lello" (The color of the month. Can't walk by the play-doh without him uttering this one.)
"Yesss" (Said like a snake with lots of S's.)
"Co-ey" (This is his word for "coloring." Again, if he spots anything that you can write with, he's going to ask to co-ey.)
"Apple" (This refers to ANY kind of fruit. That includes bannanas, grapes, and watermelon."
And so, in Little Brother's words, "Yesss, I'm going to go eat two lello fuh fries, an apple, and drink some chocka juice during my ride to the quack quacks. Okay? Thank you!"
What are your kids saying these days?
See you on Fatherhood Friday,
Busy-Dad-E
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Very cute post!!
ReplyDeleteMy 18 month old is having verbal explosions these days. He also signs a little- mostly just "Done" and "More." And he says... Mama, Dada (thinks he is hilarious when he calls me Dada and calls Jeff Mama- what a jokester), thisthter (sister), mehmaw (grandma), kikee (christy), and more. His latest trick is to stand up somewhere he isn't supposed to- like standing on the couch- and giggle, shout "sit dooown!" and point to the floor. Hilarious.
Oh my cute, sweet little grandson! He is definitely expanding his vocabulary. I'm so proud of him.
ReplyDeleteI think I will start using chocka juice. That is great. My nephew did lellow too and he said it very excitedly and carried out the oh at the end. It cracked me up. It will be fun when we get to this stage.
ReplyDeleteRight now we only have what I care about.
ReplyDelete"Da da da da da da".
Oh, and "Uh oh" when something falls.
Today, we went to the zoo. I tried to get Little Brother to say llama, but he kept saying "lello." Finally, he said, "lello mama!"
ReplyDeleteMom-E
Its so fun to hear what kids name things during this stage. Both little and big brother have given me many laughs! Aunt-E
ReplyDelete@Liz: Glad you enjoyed. Tell Jeff that I get called "mom-e" a lot, too.
ReplyDelete@Otter: It's funny how the parents keep using these funny ways of saying things. Mom-E and I have continued to call them "bita barns" long since Big Brother could say "granola bar."
@ShankRabbit: Does Niamonster drop things on purpose just to say "uh oh?"
@Aunt-E: Yep, they've continued the tradition of tunex's and habakadu's well. Can't wait to hear what Little Cousin says to make us laugh.
They do pick up EVERYTHING and their memory is really impressive. My wife is very fond of 4 letter words, so occasionaly my 3 year old repeats these words (the 6 year old has learned this isn't a good idea) so Super Mega Mommy gets the Super Mega GLARE. SHE doesn't have to get "the talk" from the daycare ladies about our sweet little princess teaching the other kids "those" words".
ReplyDelete@SMD: Yep, they're sponges. We've had an occasional near-miss event. Sounds like next time it happens, Super Mega Mommy should get the Super Mega Talk from the daycare ladies.
ReplyDeletemine are saying way too much if you ask me. they never shut up lol you know, i always loved when they first start talking. the way they say things is so cute. i wish i kept my 2nd language of tagalog/visayan, but my mom quit speaking it to us to make it easier for us. if i had that, i could give that to my kids. :-/
ReplyDelete