The Fun Zone: Eric and Co

The Kid becomes more vocal every day. He takes great delight in imitating what we say. Often, this is just a bunch of random syllables, but more and more, he'll spit out a pretty close approximation of the correct word. Of course, the real question is whether he's using the words correctly, or whether he's associated them with the completely wrong thing.

The Word: Tah-tah (Turtle)
What He Thinks It Means: Turtle
This one's spot on. Shawn and Bitty gave him this illuminated turtle for Christmas that projects stars on his walls and ceiling. He's all about pointing at them at bedtime.

The Word: Sir-kah (Circle)
What He Thinks It Means: Ceiling
I have no idea how this happened. Maybe he was pointing at something up above that had a vaguely circular shape, and we responded positively, so it stuck. Now wherever we go, he points up and says "circle." I'm working hard to turn this around.

The Word: Papa
What He Thinks It Means: Picture
We were all excited when "Papa" became one of his first words, but none so much as his grandfather, whom we call "Papa." We thought he had it right for some time, because he would point at a picture of Papa and say "Papa." But then he'd point at a picture of somebody else and say "Papa." And then he'd point to a picture of himself and say "Papa." I'm working hard on this one as well, but a more dire situation has emerged regarding TK's self-image (see below).

The Word: Da-da
What He Thinks It Means: "Me"
Going back to our earliest conversations, I would point to myself and say "da-da." The concept seemed to stick with The Kid, until this week, when he started to point to himself, in an exact mimic of my gesture, and say "da-da." I have no idea how I'm going to fix this, because when I say "No, buddy, I'M da-da," while pointing at myself, he just points at himself again and says "da-da". It would be endearing if it wasn't so frustrating.

Now, lest you think that ALL of his linguistic progress is screwy, I should note that he's gotten very good at identifying his favorite books. Often with a single word. Here's a glossary:

"Roar!" - Dinosaur vs. Bedtime by Bob Shea
"(snoring sound)" - Don't Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late by Mo Willems
"HA!" - New Socks by Bob Shea (from a single line a third of the way through the book)
"Aaaaaaaah!" - The Pigeon Wants a Puppy by Mo Willems
"La, La, La" - Moo, Baa, La, La, La by Sandra Boynton
"(slapping the table)" - Baby's First Words (which includes the word "table")

Of course, all this could change within a week, so I have to keep changing my interpretation of everything he says. It's confusing as heck.

But it's darn fun.