Well, Arden's language continues to develop at lightening speed. And in such quirky ways! Just three or four weeks ago he had basically a vocabulary of two or three words, as we reported to all of you.

 

Well, he says dozens of words now, adding new ones every day. And he understands basically everything we say to him. The funny thing is that he's very resistant to being TAUGHT anything. Words we repeat over and over hoping he'll say them (like names, or useful nouns) just roll right off. He likes to make his own selection--and often the harder the better.

 

For example, we noted that all summer he said No, but sometimes it meant Yes. That faded out a little while ago and when he wanted to say Yes to a question, he would just point over his shoulder in a gesture that meant "go and do that thing you just mentioned." He's finally got a word for Yes, but naturally it's multi-syllabic. He says "Okey Dokey." The funniest part is that he says that even when upset. If he falls and is crying and you offer him milk, he'll whimper an "Okey Dokey" that sounds as if he's trying his best to be upbeat through his tears.

 

In just the last few days he finally started to say More. But why say it in one syllable when you can use two? He says "moh-shoo" (it sounds like the Chinese dish with the pancakes). The other day, in fact, Grandma Ellen got him to add "please." Three syllables just to get a little more water in a cup.

 

 

 

Arden adamantly refused to do animal sounds until just last month, when he started with monkeys saying "oo oo ah ah." Now cats (including tigers and lions) meow, dogs say "Ruff Ruff," and sheep say "Bahh." The cool thing is that he can even distinguish some rather subtle animal differences; He knows that seagulls say "Caw Caw," as do the macaws who live down the street (in fact, he caws whenever we go past that house), and that other birds say "Teet Teet." (Amusingly, ducks seem to say the same thing, until we press him on the question, when he'll switch to "quack.")

 

He enjoys silly language games, like repeating when I told him that Mommy made the pasta he was eating. Now he loves to repeat "Pah-ta Mama" during meals. Now that he finally knows which of us is Mommy or Daddy, he'll sometimes call us the other one as a joke. He even knows to clap at the happy resolution of a book, not necessarily the last page. And meatballs, which we made for him a couple nights ago started off as "mambo." We loved that, but by the end of the meal they had already switched to "mit-bal."

 

Just in the last few days he added Empty, Excuse Me, Thank You, Please, Aunt Felicia, and Aunt Melanie (but he doesn't have the Uncles' names down yet). He calls his cousin Lila "Ya-Ya," which we're told is what she calls herself. And recently he's been joking that HE is Ya-Ya.

 

 

The really amazing part is that in the week it took us to finish this update, he's added things faster than we could begin to keep track of, that's why this is so long! (And why we'd better send it out tonight!)