Mr. Talks-A-Lot

He sure does! Seppo posted about it a couple of weeks ago, but since then, he’s progressed at lightning speed! It’s really amazing how fast he learns and recalls things. For instance, I pointed out a traffic cone in one of his pictures just one time, then he proceeded to flip through the entire book pointing out every traffic cone, of which there are roughly a dozen.

In addition to the list Seppo made, he can do the following:

• say nia-o when he sees a cat
• say woo-woo or heh-heh-heh (panting sound) when he sees a dog
• say dah-ji for “doggie” (he doesn’t make a hard g sound yet)
• pound his chest when he sees a picture of a gorilla or I say the word gorilla
• say pa when he sees a plane, as well as making the sign for it
• say clah for cloud, as well as making my fake sign for cloud (I didn’t know what it was the first time I pointed out clouds to him, so I made something up)
• say puh-pi for puppy
• say awa or aga for water (“agua”) and milk — basically anything he wants to drink
• say something like skoo and make the sign for squirrel when he sees it
• say dah for duck, and sometimes kwa-kwa for quack quack
• say bibi for baby
• make sign for fish
• say geckle-geckle for twinkle-twinkle, which means he wants us to sing that song
• say ta-do for tractor
• say wee-oo for wheel
• say wee-oo (I wrote it it same as above, but it really sounds different when he says it) for the sound that emergency vehicles make
• say mo-oh for if he wants more (or any) of something
• say shi (sit), steh (stay), and she (shake) to Mobi, while giving him a treat with dinner
• say tahs for stars
• say no for nose, mao for mouth, tee for teeth, eye/eyes for — yes — eye/eyes!
• point to his toes when you ask him to
• muss up his hair with both hands when you ask him where his hair is

In his books, he can point to Little Pookie (a little piglet character), the “baby” (any small child in any story), hair, eyes, nose, ears, mouths, hats, shoes, stars, moon, sun, bunnies, cats, sheep, ladybugs, turtles, spiders, balls, wheels, buses, trucks, cones, cars, spoons, forks, and a bunch of stuff I’m forgetting right now.

He can tickle you, hide (by going into the kitchen and running back out, or by covering his face with his hands), fake tickle dolls/characters in books (and seems to know it’s make-pretend), bring books over that you name, put away his plates and bowls into his drawer, twist on caps on his old milk bottles, use a fork & spoon mostly successfully, drink from a cup by himself, find mama’s shoes or dada’s shoes and bring them to the correct person in matched pairs, army crawl under chairs for fun (he just did this yesterday), play blanket fort, rock on our rocking recliners, hit the correct button to play lullabies in his room, find his nose/mouth/teeth.

I am honestly amazed everyday at how fast he is changing! I can’t believe how much stuff he does and is aware of! I just love that kid to pieces. He surprises me everyday with his delight at the world around him. I hope we in turn surprise and delight him everyday by introducing him to the world.

Here he is in a photo from yesterday, about to go down the slide with his friend (whom he calls by name!) — he climbed all the way up by himself:

As a comparison, here is a photo of him taken one year and a day ago, having his first bite of solid food:

And here is him a year ago to the day: