Words

Gavin is currently going through a bit of a language explosion, and it's a ton of fun.

A few weeks back, the only world he really solidly knew was "no". He said it to everything. He would shout "mama" if he was very upset, but he wouldn't say it on command. Everything was just no, no, no.

But now he's picking up words like it's his job. And the best part (to me) is that it's so tied to books. He's not reading yet, but this is certainly a sign of early literacy. So here are a few of the words Gavin knows and the circumstances he says them under.

• Runs into the kitchen saying "nanana" and pointing towards the fruit bowl. This means he wants a banana.
• In the kitchen, points to the island and says "ma ma", which means a teething biscuit (the brand we get is mum mums"
• Points to the fridge and says "ma ma". This means milk. The pointing is the key distinction.
• Opens a book to a picture of a cow and says "moo". This works with two or three different books that I know of, so it definitely recognizes cows.
• In Jimmy Fallon's "Mama" book, Gavin recognizes and says "ball" on the page with the soccer ball. He also identifies his own soccer ball as ball. It's unclear if this extend to other types of balls yet.
• In the same book, Gavin will point to the picture of the owls and say "whoo".
• In "Go Dog, Go", Gavin knows to say "dog" on the first page. He loves dogs. He knows that Kina is a dog, and he can almost always identify dogs and call them such
• I think he may also know "duck", but it sounds exactly the same as "dog" at the moment. But he will point to pictures of ducks, say "duck", and laugh when I quack. The goal is clearly to make me quack, so I think he knows the difference between the two words. He just can't quite articulate it.
• I can't transcribe this next one. It's about five or six syllables long, has lots of p's and t's in it and means "blow bubbles". He may also be able to say "bubble", but it sounds a lot like ball and he'll only say it about half the time. I don't know where this came from or why this phrase is three times as long as it needs to be, but it is very clear what he means.

This is all I can think of for now. It's so exciting to watch my kid figure out language. He still has trouble communicating sometimes, and more often than not it seems like his tears are because of his frustration about this. But he's getting there, and it won't be long now before he can express himself. He definitely understands almost everything Kevin and I say, and now it's just about figuring out how to do that himself.