What we're reading

I am a Garbage Truck has been fascinating J for several weeks now. It's also expanded his vocabulary to now include "hopper" and "hycleen truck".

J's always thrilled by the chore of taking the trash or recycling out. He races to the window when he hears the trash truck and typically asks about the possibility of seeing the trash truck every morning when I get him up and change his diaper. I guess it's typical boy stuff, but it is interesting that he has just sort of gravitated to some of this kind of stuff, without C or I pushing him.

Oh, no! What happened to the letters? "Chicken Boom!"

Fifteen Animals by Sandra Boynton is another daily read. "Bob."

And this Little Scholastic book, Peek-a-Zoo, which has lots of fun manipulatives, shapes, colors, animals, and textures to identify and explore.

Toddlertalk

You know how toddlers pronounce certain words in their own way and sometimes it is just too adorable to correct and eventually you start using their terms as well? C and I do this all the time, and half the time we are only talking to each other.

Example. Last night C told me about their evening since I was out at a work Christmas party. They went to C's brother's house for pizza and "J had a bina when we got there and then ate some pizza." The word banana does not exist in our vocabulary any more! If we said "banana", J would know what we meant, but I guess we figure bina is shorter and also kind of cute!

A typical morning conversation between J and I goes something like this.

"Good morning! How did you leep? Did you stay warm under your pee-wee?"

"Up. Wanna play."

"Well, let's change your diaper and eat some breakfast."

"Breakfett. Me-meal. Blue-blues. Bina."

"Oh, baby, we don't have any blue-blues. But, you can have a bina in your oatmeal."

"Hucker."

"No, silly, you can't have a hucker! It's only 8 am! Now, let's get dressed and put on your gray hocks. Do you want to wear your Robeez or your Big Boy Shoes today?"

I was never really one for babytalk when J was an infant. I'd coo at him and such, but I mostly talked to him about what we were doing and seeing throughout the day. So, it's a little odd that I've adopted many of his words. The Ready to Read-trained librarian in me says I should probably speak correctly so that J gets a feel for the sounds and patterns in these words. But, having an eloquent and well-spoken toddler isn't any fun!

Trust me. Fun is climbing up on the hofa, sitting down with some books, like our favorite Goodnight Gorilla, and laughing at the you-peeper who doesn't realize the gorilla stole his keys!

Or, running through the house playing a game of gitchu.

Or, best of all, tucking the little guy into bed at night, covering him up with his pee-wee, saying, "La loo." And having him respond with a smile, "La loo too."

a new meaning for "dundee"

I'm not exactly sure when this started, but sometime in the last week, dundee has acquired a new meaning. It still often means "give me that", but it's now the word that J uses when he doesn't know what to call something. He also uses it as if it means "I don't know" when I ask him a question and he's unsure of how to respond.

I may just be an ever-doting mama, but this is really fascinating to me. Maybe every child has their own dundee. I don't know. It makes me wish I knew more about language development and linguistics. I took a couple of classes in college towards my Sociology minor that touched on these topics and I was intrigued then as well. (At least, until I learned that area of study also involved a LOT of statistics classes.)

In my career at the library, much attention has been paid to language development, vocabulary, and literacy in children as encouraging children's progress toward these milestones is one of the primary goals of storytime. I remember reading articles about how babies who are just weeks old will show preference to someone speaking in their native language as opposed to a foreign one. How astounding!

While on the subject of language and words, I want to take note of some of the impressive words and ideas J has mastered in the last week or two:

• In his ever-observant way, he astutely commented "big tree fall down" while we were walking by remnants of the wind storm. I think this may have been his first sentence!
• He completely shocked us by telling us that a cricket says "chirp chirp". (I've no clue how that seeped in--we've not even read The Very Quiet Cricket yet!)
• Phrases: he'll overhear us use one and immediately attempt it and tuck it away for later use; for example, "on the way", "all the time", "good girl Maggie", "oh my", "all better", "hold on tight".

In a nutshell, I suppose I should just say that J attempts to say whatever he hears. And I do mean WHATEVER he hears. Today while we picnicked outside of the library, he slyly said "stoo-pee bee" while Daddy swatted at the air muttering "stupid bee".