New Words

I am usually surprised by the words Ian takes interest in. Recently he began saying clock, uh-oh and squash. Mom has still not entered his vocabulary, but all these other words must hold some special importance, even if it is known only to him. Here are my guesses about why he says certain words:

Clock: Each time I walk into his room to get him out of bed, Ian immediately scrambles to standing position on the side of the crib and points emphatically at objects in the room, asking "That?! That?!" So I introduce the picture frames, the ceiling fan, and recently, the digital clock on his dresser. Now when I walk in his room to get him up from his nap, he points to the clock and says "Cock!" and then points to everything else and asks "That?!" I think these things are so important to him because they are what surround him as he drifts off to sleep and as he awakens each day.

Uh-oh: This one is less of a mystery: it seems every child enjoys deliberately testing gravity by dropping sippy cups, French toast, and whatever else is handy off of the side of their high chair. Originally, I guess saying "uh-oh" was my nice way of expressing "if you splatter milk on the new paint ONE MORE TIME...!" It hasn't worked to teach him not to drop things, but he picked up "uh-oh" readily. And the tendency to drop things repeatedly just so he can practice saying it.

Squash: He pronounces it as "shash" or as "scotch" with emphasis on the "ch". This word entered his vocab when I was feeding Ian pureed squash several weeks ago and explaining what he was eating. He happily repeated the word, much to my surprise. These days, all types of pureed baby food = shash. And if he's being fed some solid food he doesn't particularly like, he'll point at the tub containing baby food containers and request "shash" instead.

I love catching Ian singing songs containing a muddle of his favorite words. He is such a cool kid.