extraordinary, justified, going on and on

I meant to write a post a while back, commenting again on Jonah’s extraordinary language development. I wanted to state for the record that my amazement at his verbal acuity was totally justified. The kid has been learning new words at lightening speed. It’s really something.

Mostly I wanted to tell myself, that self who tried to explain away my fascination and shock as something everyone must experience: Dear self, Babies don’t usually go from one word to over 200 in a span of three months. It’s no wonder your head is spinning. Love, me.

Aside from justified, I’m also feeling grateful. It is really something to have a one-year-old who can tell me pretty much everything that’s going on with him, and exactly (or nearly exactly) what he wants.

While I’m not recording every new word anymore, I do want to try to capture the current state-of-the-lingua:

At meals, he’s very specific about what he’d like to eat: Yo-GURT; Sa-aussse (applesauce); MEAT! Peeeas! Beanss! Sometimes he wants a bottle, other times to nurse. Juice (Jooose) in a cup. Cup! Cracker, Salllt-eee.

Then there’s the unfortunate combination of his not walking, thus my carrying him everywhere, and my not always clearing the door frames. Hurt. Head-uh. Owww. Hurt.

Fortunately, kisses do mostly make it all better. Keeesess.

Can I just say? I wish light switches were down at toddler level. I’d totally deal with the disco effects in exchange for not having to stand against a wall, hefting the 20+ pounds of him (Shhwieetch!) so he can play with On! Off!

Side! (outside) Flower! Out! (= pick the flower). It can get a little tiring, doing everything he asks, keeping him stimulated. We probably need more educational toys. I’m starting to look into options, wondering if there might be a preschool that could take him young.

The other day, while we were at the park and he was swinging, one of us, I forget who, started the what does this animal say? game. After a few, I paused. More! he demanded. He likes to be quizzed.

In that way, he’s a lot like me. I always took great pleasure in tests, knowing the answers. I related to Lisa Simpson in that episode where school is closed and she begs her mother to grade her, evaluate her, please! Marge writes a big A on a paper towel, hands it to her. Lisa is overjoyed.

We go through Jonah’s set of blocks, he identifies every picture. Except for some vague images: The table is a chair, as far as he’s concerned — I don’t think he actually knows the word for table. And explaining planet is a little tough (a Saturn-esque drawing); he calls it a hat, which we think is a fair assessment. He’s learned Rainbow from his Gymboree flash cards (a freebie from an editing gig) though he hasn’t seen one in real life.

He likes the sign language flash cards too. It’s not that I’m using them to force learning on him. I figured they were for me to learn the signs and teach to him. But he asks for them, likes the drawings of the little kids and although he is learning to do some of the signs, he likes to look at the cards and identify them more. Cookie! Go! Eat!

Yesterday I taught him Blanket, showing him the one in his crib. Today he used the word unprompted, pointing out a different Blanket to me.

To help his daily strings of demands sound more polite, I’ve been modeling using the word please. When he says Up! I’ll say back to him, Up, Please! That sort of thing. Sometimes when he’s fighting me particularly hard, twisting his body, squirming away during a diaper change or when I’m trying to get him into the car seat for example, I find myself saying, No, please, no.

Earlier today, when Scott went to put a fresh diaper on him. Jonah said, in his clear, bell-like little voice: No, pa-lease?

We went to the library two days ago and Jonah immediately zeroed in on the Spot books which we had to check out of course (Where’s Spot? being a huge favorite at home.) We’ve now read Spot Goes to the Park about 20 times. Today, he read it back to me. One word for nearly each page. That he called the Ball, for the image of Spot getting his ball out of a box wasn’t so remarkable necessarily. But on the page where Spot is rushing and the lift-flap reveals a talking turtle, Jonah says Hurry (summarizing the turtle’s speech bubble, What’s the hurry?) I don’t think Jonah knows the concept of hurry, but he has already learned that that word goes with that image.

He likes to suggest that we go to his room (Roooom), to play with his Toyeez. Puh-lay!

He also likes to go into his room’s closet, where daddy keeps display cabinets filled with the vintage toys he collects, that Jonah cannot touch (and for the moment, the doors of which Jonah cannot open). He’ll pull himself up to standing, lean against the glass, yelling like that woman from the Mervyn’s ad: Open open open! (When Jonah says it, it sounds like Oh-meeeeen, Oh-meeeeen…)

One case is full of Sesame Street finger puppets. For the most part, as far as Jonah is concerned, they’re all named Burt. Sometimes he remembers Ernie. But today, there was a loose Grover out for him to play with. We’ve been reading The Monster at the End of this Book, but even so, Grover has always been firmly called BURT! Until today.

Jonah knows that chicken is an animal and something you eat. And when he eats chicken, if you point out that it’s chicken, he says, Bok Bok Bok. He knows bunnies go hop, and that they’re also a yummy organic cheddar cheese flavored cracker.

Green is still his favorite color to point out. Though he’ll occasionally mention BEh-LUE!

He doesn’t like baths anymore but if he can stand next to the tub and get hit with the spray while one of us is in the Sho-wuh! — he’s happy as a clam. After a while, he wants Up! so he can get all the way under the Wa-rer-uh.

He continues to say Poop, Pee, and Potty, though not actually connecting those actions with wanting to perform the act in the targeted location these days. He now says our old cue sound “Pssssssssssss,” to us when he’s sitting on the potty (whether or not the related action is occurring) and cracking up. It is pretty funny.

He says Shhhhhh and puts his finger up to his lips; this when the cat is napping, or when Jonah does his pretend nap routine, flopping Down! on the floor with his giant dog stuffies — Pupp-eeyeh! — and then Shhhhh. And then he laughs. He also says Awwwwwwww while he’s snuggling, because he heard me say it. He knows what Awwwww means, because he said it at lunch yesterday when a mom and toddler we were sharing a table with hugged.

He’s going gangbusters on body parts: hand-uh, head-uh, mowthe, belly, butt (still his word for belly button but also now for his butt, too), knee, foot, toe, eye, eayurrr, chin; but still no shoulders, so we can’t quite sing the song.

And his favorite game is still peek-a-boo, or, rather, the more efficient: BOO!

But the capper is Share.

I have joked that the two words parents say over and over to no effect are Gentle and Share. Because, seriously? These kids are constantly poking and grabbing at each other, and stealing each other’s toys.

Jonah knows Share. He says it when someone has something he wants to play with, and when he is offering his toy to someone else. And he’s flabbergasted, nay — indignant — when that someone won’t give over, or take from. Share! Share????

But he doesn’t much grab, or push away. He’s a lover, not a fighter.