Learning to talk.

Joseph is slowly learning to talk. S-L-O-W-L-Y. He knows several words and can make their meanings vary. For example, "off" could mean he wants his shoes off. But "OFF!" means, 'get off!' "Way" means 'throw away' or 'put away.' It's a good thing to find out what he means before giving him the 'OK'.

Joseph learns words based on his experiences. He can say "baby" and uses it for almost all 4-legged animals and also for Sarah. This week he learned "eggs" when we acquired and started an incubator.

He learns words of the things that he wants or likes. His first official word was "ball" and he still uses it regularly. He says "pate" when he wants the tape. He likes books and learned that word a while back. If he can't get something open, he lets me know..."lock" or "guck" (stuck). Joseph's favorite color is "bink" but sometimes he likes "boo."

And he learns words for personal reasons. "Owie" was a word he figured out near the beginning. "No" is very easy for him to say (but much more difficult to hear) and he's recently learned "ginky" (stinky) when he needs that problem taken care of - like right now!

Besides calling Sarah "baby" and Chad and I "Mommy" and "Daddy", Joseph doesn't have names for people. He does refer to himself with "be" instead of "me." I can't figure out why it's so hard for him to say it, when he does it in 'mommy' a thousand times a day. I expect that one day it will just come out right and we'll never even notice.

My favorites are things he uses in place of what he doesn't know or can't say. Whenever he sees anything Christmas or winter related he says, "hu-hu-ho." The first two syllables are short and the third is held out. It's cute. If it's relating to the dogs, he gives his version of a bark. And his facial expressions with voice inflections fill in most of what he can't say. When that doesn't work, we all get frustrated.

In the past, I've had doctors and friends mention older siblings speaking for the younger ones, taking away the need for the younger one to learn new words. Until now, I haven't really noticed this was the case in our family. In times past we've just been trying to figure out what the baby was saying, but now we have Rebekah who is constantly putting words into Joseph's mouth. It drives me crazy.

Scenario: Joseph and Rebekah are coloring at the table. Joseph makes some customary grunts and vowel sounds. Rebekah turns to him and in a higher pitch says, "Your picture isn't nice? You want a new one?" (This is not an actual conversation...just an example.) OR..."You don't like the rain? You want Mommy to buy you an umbrella?" Sometimes her suggestions relate and sometimes they don't. Sometimes she even uses Joseph to voice her own desires.

This drives me nuts! And even worse, the other kids have started doing it! I don't need people to tell him he's hungry when all he wanted was for me to staple a paper. So we're all working to help Joseph talk more. Luckily, I'm enjoying the ride (for the most part) because it seems to be a leisurely one.