Little Parrot

Sarah is starting to talk.  As she just turned two, this may be an underwhelming announcement.  But it is a family tradition to be a little slow to start talking just before becoming a chatter box.  (Remember, Nathan didn't talk until he was THREE.)

Another family tradition is to resist help from others in learning to talk.  If someone tells you to say a certain word, the best response is grunt at them in a way that expresses they are bothering you.

Then there is Sarah.  She has been very willing to try new words suggested to her.  It is so cute to watch her (hypocritical) older siblings giving her talking lessons.  She has been such a good sport even if she hasn't been getting anywhere close to really saying anything. But she's good at getting enough syllables. 

Sarah say elephant.
Ba-ba-ba.
Good job!

In the past week or so, something in Sarah's brain has connected and the words are starting to form.  This, with her desire to speak has created an interesting echo in the house.  Now I hear a tiny voice trying to mimic the last word spoken in the conversations we have.

Let's put the clothes away.  Way?
It's time for lunch.  Unch?
Mommy, will you cut me a Halloween bat?  Baa?

What a fun time we are having and those little echos are etching smiles onto my heart! 

Speak!!

Sarah has decided to give talking a try (she will be two next month). There are a few words she's started using with more accuracy and regularity.

Mom-mom (that's me)
maw (more)
uh-oh (just what you're thinking)
umma (up...that one has been giving her trouble for months)
isss (this...we're just trying this one out)
yum (another obvious one)
yay (she easily gets caught up in the excitement!)

And one that we're very clear on...no confusion:
NO!

She often shrieks it.

Sometimes she overdoes it:
no-no-no-no-no

It's pretty cute and annoying all in the same instant.

Incidentally, this was one of the last words the first 5 kids started using. It does not bode well in my heart that it's her first 100% clear word. Buckle yourselves in people, we're in for a rough ride!

"Mma"

Sarah has her first word. I don't know if it qualifies as an official word, but I know what it means and she uses it appropriately. That seems like a first word to me!

"Mma" translates as "up" in the English language. Poor Sarah gets the vowel sound mixed up and the /m/ just jumps in there. But she means "up" and she usually ends up "up" and that's all that she's concerned about. And I think it's pretty darn cute!

Last week, the kids were left on their own for a bit while I ran to the church to get Nathan from scouts. When I returned, I found that they'd taught Sarah to meow. It sounds like her regular babble, but it's at a higher pitch. It, too, is pretty darn cute!

But biting? Not so cute. :{

Quote of the day, part one and two

I love my little Joseph. He says the funniest things.

PART ONE
Monday it started to snow. At the beginning of the storm, Joseph looked outside and said,

"It's snowing! Holy 'mokes! It's Christmas!"

PART TWO
Today Joseph was rubbing his chin on Sarah's wispy baby hair.

"Me rubbing Sarah's 'pikey hair on my chubby cheeks."

Kentucky Gal

This is a funny story, compliments of Rebekah.

Our little Joseph is still adding to his vocabulary, trying harder and harder words each day. Joseph has only used regular names for Rebekah (Bocky or Bocka), Mommy, Daddy and Sarah (Baby). We've been working on getting him to say "Sarah" and sometimes he's tried, but I've never heard it.

So this morning I tried to get him to say it. And he did! Sort of...he said something like "Sa-i-ah." I questioned him on his pronunciation and laughed a bit. Then Rebekah says, "Maybe that's how they say it in Kentucky!"

Ha HA! Maybe so! Though I wouldn't know...we've never been to Kentucky. And frankly, I'm surprised that Rebekah even blurted that one out.

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.

Non-Compliant

Joseph has slowly been adding words to his vocabulary. I think we're still under 20. One of his best words - OK...it IS his best word - is "no." It's very clear, he can say it without any trouble and is gifted at using it appropriately.

This is in contrast to "mommy" which is what he says to signal that he wants something (regardless of who is in the room) or when he wants to name the paper bag he's decorating. I think that's what he did. He kept holding up his little bag, pointing to the coloring on it and saying "mommy." He showed everyone his mommy-bag. It's cute, but personally, I wish he'd pick someone else to call repeatedly throughout the day.

But back to "no." Yesterday, he made a developmental leap! He put two words together for the first time (unless you count "no-no-no", which I don't, but it's really cute to hear him saying it to Sarah). Yesterday he started saying, "No way!"

So many possibilities and this is what we get. I can see this being quite fun now. Not only is it NO, it's NO way. Does that mean he can't be persuaded? Is he firm in his decision? Maybe he's just really enjoying talking and it's fun for him to say. I do see a little gleam in his eye. I choose to believe it's an innocent gleam.

Oo-Pee!

This is Joseph's new word. He's trying to say oopsie, but can't seem to find his 's.' It's very cute and he's very good at using it appropriately.

This is in contrast to Mommy, which he's also recently learned, but doesn't always use in the correct situations.

And then there is NO. NO problem with that one!

Owie!

Joseph doesn't talk. He can say 'ball' and a whispered 'heh' means yes. He'll mimic some letter sounds but doesn't use them without a prompt. He can shake his head, but isn't up to a nod yet. Mostly, his communication is in the basic grunt, squeal, groan or scream. We hear A LOT of 'eh.'

So when Joseph recently learned to say 'owie', it was a little foreign to our ears. Unfortunately, Joseph gets to practice this word OFTEN. He's always crashing, falling, bumping or otherwise feeling injured. He's been using it so much that I'm beginning to wonder if he is substituting it for other words he doesn't know. It seems to be a word to express dissatisfaction or a negative feeling.

Today when Leah went to kiss him, he said 'owie.' I thought it was a funny response, but then maybe Leah has a killer kiss! Maybe he didn't use 'owie' by accident then. :)

Happy Birthday, Joseph!

Joseph turned 2 today! The kids have really been looking forward to his birthday. Leah even made him several cards/pictures.

We went to dinner tonight, as is our tradition for b-days. Joseph didn't actually pick the restaurant. He'll get to do that next year. Daddy picked it and we went to Texas Roadhouse. We'd once told the kids there was a restaurant that had peanuts and you could throw the shells on the ground. Now they've experienced it. It will probably be a while before we go back. It was VERY busy and we waited quite a while. We were there before 6 PM and thought we'd be beating most of the dinner rush. I think we were the dinner rush. Then the kids ate so many rolls and peanuts, plus the fried onion that we had a coupon for, that no one could finish their dinner (including the parents).

We waddled to the car and came home for presents and cake. When you're one of the youngest in a family, you have a lot of help opening your presents. And that's the easy part! Then you have to fight for the opportunity to play with the presents. We only gave Joseph 4 gifts and only one of them was a toy. Good thing it had 39 pieces; that's roughly 8 pieces a kid!

Then we had the cake. None of the kids knew what the cake looked like, though Nathan (for some reason) was sure it was a Curious George cake. This is what it really looked like. I was helping Joseph blow out his candle. I didn't want him to try to extinguish it with his hands, so I had my arms around him. When it came time to really help him blow out the flame, I failed miserably. I think I was just too far away. I can analyze what went wrong if I want since Chad was recording. We'll be able to laugh at Mommy for the next 30 years.

It was a big cake. We only cut pieces that didn't have ducks on them, so the cake was quite a show piece by the time we were done! We'll have dessert for the next week...it was two cake mixes in a 12" x 2" pan.

And now I fear for my weigh-in on Monday. I have been under 180 all week, but eating out tonight (it was the fried onion that I fear the most) and the cake may have been my undoing. I did stick to only one roll though and ate my salad with very little dressing and drank almost 2 huge glasses of water. I didn't have them "load" my baked potato and only ate half of the roasted chicken on my plate. And I ate less cake than I would normally eat. I guess we'll just have to see how it all works out.

Anyway, Joseph is a very cute 2-year-old. He's starting to repeat sounds and we can get him to say "things" when he's in an agreeable mood. (By "things" I mean, animals sounds; "ess" - that mean yes or this...interchangeably; ball - his first official word; and "lick-lick" - something that Leah felt she needed to teach him.) But this boy is very smart and understands WAY more than it looks like he should. And he's the best at throwing things in the garbage. Apparently, that's a skill you lose with age, so I don't know how long he'll keep it up. I'm just enjoying it while I can! He makes Chad help him "say prayers" at night, though all he's really doing is saying, "eh" when Chad pauses to have him repeat the words. He's got the CUTEST little face and his smile is killer.

Happy Birthday, Joseph! You're not a baby anymore!

Conversation with Joseph

Joseph is 21 months old. He is all boy. He is feisty, stubborn, obedient, loving, energetic and quite adorable. He's also not talking yet. It's quite the adventure around here. I think he'll talk before he's 3 (unlike his brother, Nathan), but it's sure taking a long time!

I was thinking that Joseph sounds a lot like Curious George. He makes the same grunting noises and "oo-oo's." His eyes get big and round when he gets excited and he jumps a lot. This is handy since I often call him "George" for no reason at all. He also goes by "Freddy."

He has learned to say "yeah" in a very breathy sort of way...kind of sounds like he's gulping in some air. He can shake his head "no." If he wants something, we often hear, "mamamam."

Here is a video from this morning. I tried to get him to talk. At least he's expressive.

First Word?

Joseph will be 16 months on Friday and we've yet to hear him utter his first word. It's not that he doesn't make himself understood, but it's not with anything you'd be able to find in the dictionary.

But I think we may have our first word! True, we need to lower our standards just a little but I think it's close enough. When Joseph goes to do something he's been told to do, he says the /k/ sound. I believe this is his version of OK. So, his first word is a positive and agreeable one! None of my kids have said, "No" before 18 months. They just save it up for later and then abuse it.