It’s fascinating watching a tiny human learn how to talk. Some words will randomly appear with no sign of where they came from. Others are fought for. Practiced over and over.
Apple? Randomly popped up one day and never left. Dad? We’ve been working on that for MONTHS. He’s finally getting there, but there are still some days that Tom gets called Mama or nothing at all. But the days where he gets out a “da!” is worth it.
Baby appeared almost the same day that G did. It’s probably his most used word. Elephant? It’s one of his most obsessed over things. We say the word over and over all day. However, he’s only managed to say it once, and then never again.
And then there are the K words. Words that end in K. They all sound the exact same when E says them. At first there were only two, so I could often use context to figure out which one he meant. Lately though, the number of K words have grown, and every once in a while I have no context and am left guessing. Which is exactly what happened the other day as E was eating dinner (which is usually when we dance to baby shark).
E: Uhck!
Me: Baby shark?
E: Uhck!
Me: You want baby shark?
E: No! Uhck!
Me: Wait since when do you not want baby shark? Truck? You want a truck?
E: UHCK!
Me: Book? Socks?
E: Noooooo
Me: Duck?
E: Yah!
Me: Oh you want that random duck sticker you had yesterday? Of course...
That duck sticker by the way? On its last legs. It’s covered in cream cheese and all crumpled, but he’s asked for it every day for the past 3 days. Yay…
I love all the weird sayings and phrases that toddlers come up with. I never correct them, and I always mourn when they disappear. When there’s a loud noise, E used to say “Oh so noise!” but now he says “I herr-d that!” Both are cute, but I miss his ‘so noise’ that he used to say. Just like he didn’t know the word for crayons, so he used to call them colors. The other day he told me he wanted to color with crayons. I’m thrilled he’s learning, but it’s a little sad to let go. No longer do I get the “Um-me!!” when he’s hungry. Now I get “want snacks!”