Gametes In Love

(while playing our “Name an animal” game)

S: Gazelle
G: No. That’s no how you say it.
S: How do you say it then?
G: GaZELLE

Apparently, you need to scream out the second half of Giselle. We all had it wrong. Including Merriam-Webster.

S2 and I had the following exchange this morning:

Me: I love you!
S2: buuuuuurp!

That’s boy-speak for ‘I love you, too!’, right?

I wanted to write this down because I know, this too, will stop and it’s too cute to forget.

A little while back, G started to want “in” on S and mine’s conversations. Whenever the two of us get babbling about our day, or a task at hand, if we don’t take a break to talk to G, we will end up with the following exchange:

G: No! Stop! My tuuhn. MY TUUHN!!!

Me (or S): Ok, buddy. Your turn. What do you want to say?

G: Hmn… Zeba (meaning “zebra”)

and then he grins.

It’s always “zebra”. Every time it’s his turn, he says “zebra”. And it’s stinkin’ cute every time he does it.

We’ve got a new word. This on it’s own these days isn’t too much of a big deal, since G is sprouting new words & phrases left and right, but it’s more of “what” the new word is. G has now given us “Yeah!”

He got “No!” figured out quite quickly. He even has “Stop!” complete with the hand in your face, but any version of Yes has escaped him until recently. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is when you have a toddler ask for something that you don’t understand and you try to narrow it down? Grunts didn’t help, and when you couldn’t figure it out fast enough, it only made for one pissed off toddler.

So now it’s a bit easier. I can ask him a question and he responds with “Yeah”. Plus I get the added bonus of feeling like we’re having more of a conversation now.

Small steps, but big communication leaps.

There are two things G does that stink of cute and just make me smile when he does them:

1. The way he says “Thank You!” He gives you a big cheesey grin, and says “Tek-you!” It makes bed-time interesting. Why? Because he’ll get up after I put him down, and ask for his Scout.. and then Turtle, and then Chickie, until he has a party in his bed with him. Why am I a sucker for this? Because after every friend, he does the cheesy Thank you, and it melts my heart, and I fall for it. Every.single.time!

2. How he lists our family. He says “Mamma, Dadda, Fiffin, Tome”. For starters it’s really, REALLY cool that he’s already including S2 in our family list… even though he’s not even here yet. Second, it’s hilarious how he pronounces “storm” to begin with.

So yeah, those are two cute moments to share with you guys this week.

A bed-time chat with G. [Imagine a toddler, in his footed jammas, standing in his crib, a “banket” and Nubsie in each hand.]

G: Pease

Me: Please? Please what?

G: Sit

Me: You want me to sit? Ok.

Me: Do you want momma or dada to sit with you tonight?

G: Mama

Me: Ok, I guess I’ll sit with you.

How frikkin’ cool is this? This is the first actual exchange I’ve had with G, and yeah, even though he wasn’t using lots of words we actually had a conversation.

I learned an interesting lesson today: apparently the “ie” suffix is not an appropriate addition to all words.

Remember Nubs? One of G’s buddies? Well, occasionally I call Nubs, Nubsie. Well, G has his own name for his giraffe: he calls him Nuk. I don’t know how we got from Nubs to Nuk, but whatever.

G’s routine in the morning is to get up, stand up in his crib and then toss his buddy as far out of the bed as possible. And then point and go “Nuk fall” (No darlin’, Nuk didn’t fall, he was pushed!). I picked up Nuk, handing it to G asking him if he wanted his buddy. Except I didn’t use the word “buddy”. Instead I used the name G gives him. And I added an “ie” at the end. And then I realized that didn’t sound good. At all.

Here’s hoping G won’t use this new word to name his friend.

G now officially has his first phrase. It’s “green ball” (or “geen ball” if you listen to him say it). I was debating whether I could count “oh, no!” from this past week-end, but now we have two more “official” words strung together.

I’m excited! G still baby-babbles a ton, but I can’t wait to listen to the non-stop chatter of him telling me about his day… and actually understand what he’s saying.

BTW, have I mentioned just how much I love his daycare?

Speaking of daycare, I put in our application and deposit for the wee-one-baking yesterday. Yes, at only 4w along we’re on a wait list. Our daycare is really, really popular and their first opening, even for us, will be March 2011. I say even for us, because once you’re a parent here, you get priority in placement. Still, the list is this long, because other school parents are awaiting acceptance for their incoming kids. I swear, the current families will be keeping this program in business for years to come.

S is a big Olympics fan. He’s especially enamored of the alpine skiing events. I think it brings him back to his college Ski Club days.

Today while S was watching Women’s Downhill Slalom, G looked up at the TV to see one of the ladies begin the course, and instantly said “Wee!”

Yeah, kid! I’ll take your word for it.

Those are G’s new words. Acquired just last week.

Bubb-uh is bubble. We discovered this after picking him up from daycare last week while the kids were playing with bubbles. We have no idea how long it’s been around, but hey it’s new to us. I even tried to get this on video, but as soon as the little red dot on the camera came on, G went mum. Oh well, you’ll have to take my word for this for now.

Hhithy stands for kitty. G hasn’t worked up the “k-uh” sound yet, which is why “kitty” starts with an “h”. Personally, I think it’s a mix between “kitty” and “hissy”, because while many kids will learn that cats say “Meow”, G will insist they say “Hisss!!!” since that’s all Neko can demonstrate in G’s presence.

So that brings us up to 9 words? S and I are listening so intently to everything he says now. There are times we swear he hear him repeat a just-heard word (like “light”, and “eight”), but can’t get him to do it more than the once. Those words we don’t count. We’re only counting ones that are repeated and used in context.

I’m loving that words are starting to sprout up so much faster now. I can’t wait to find out what’s next. I will really, really miss the baby babble though. It is so sweet!

Honestly, I feel like it’s also letting him get away with a lot too. At least in my mind — I keep telling myself, “He’s still so little, he doesn’t understand” when he does something he shouldn’t. I feel that when he acquires a richer dictionary that excuse isn’t going to fly anymore. This is not to say, I’m allowing him to stick his finger in the electrical sockets or anything, but it’s made me a (relatively) relaxed parent. I’m enjoying not having arguments with him, or frustrations that he didn’t do something I asked him to do. I feel awful saying that I have “low expectations” of my child, but right now, I do. I expect him to eat his meals, take good naps, do his business in his diapers, and play nice with those around him. He’s fulfilling each of these tasks beautifully, and I’m thrilled! I’m excited about having deep conversations with him and finding out why He thinks the sky is blue, but I don’t want baby G to go away just yet. 9 words are right where we should be.

Anyone want to start a pool on what words will come next (and when)?