Benjamin is at that age (known as fast-mapping) where he is learning to talk at lightning fast speeds. All of a sudden, in the past month, he has gone from saying a lot of words and simple two word sentences to saying all sorts of phrases, sentences, and sometimes even his own ideas. This morning I walked past his room and heard him counting and talking to Oo-Oo. If he watches TV, he does more talking about what is going on than watching. He constantly shocks me with obscure words he knows and his ability to repeat anything you say to him. I wanted to make a top 10 list of my favorite things he says right now, but it has turned into a top 16 list.
1. “Ew gross Daddy”. He says this whenever Grant burps. For those of you who know Grant, that is more often than I would like. Jam also says “Ew gross cat hair” and “Ew gross booger”. I’ve come to the conclusion that if something is sticky and gross he assumes it is a booger and if something is dry and gross he assumes it is a cat hair. Although most of the time, it probably is boogers and cat hair.
2. All of a sudden Benjamin feels the need to identify everything by color. He asks “Please BROWN Oo-Oo” and “BROWN footfall paci”. (The football pacifier is his favorite and he only has it when he goes to sleep at night). He also asks for “BROWN Mater” and “BLUE blueberries”. I can’t help but laugh every time he does this.
3. Benjamin has come up with his own names for everyone he loves. I am Mama even though he can say Mommy if he wants. My mom wanted to be called Grangie (Like Grand-G short for Grand-Ginner because her name is Ginner). Benjamin calls her Geemee 100% of the time. My dad wanted to be called Gramps, but Benjamin calls him Jeeps. Grants parents are Grammy and Pops but Benjamin calls them Gammy and Pots.
4. Whenever something breaks or runs out of batteries Benjamin says, “Uh-oh I fixed it”. When you fix it for him he again says “I fixed it”.
5. If you give Benjamin regular milk instead of Chocolate milk he takes one sip, hands it back to you and says “No, Mommy milk” (or Daddy milk according to who is offering). If you point to a bottle or glass of wine Benjamin says “Mommy juice”, haha.
6. If either of our cats jump up onto the furniture, Benjamin gets a very determined look on his face and claps and says “No cat no” or “No Zig-Zag no!”
7. Benjamin used to say “please cookie” but now he says “Please ONE cookie” because I always say “Ok, you can have one cookie”.
8. Benjamin doesn’t say yes, ever. He says “okay”. When he says “okay” it is always high-pitched and always happy, even when he is crying or in the middle of a little tantrum.
9. All of a sudden Benjamin constantly wants to know “Where are we going” or “Where is Daddy going” or “Where did Mama go”.
10. Whenever he walks past Lyla’s room he whispers “Shh, Lyla seeping.” If you ask him where Oo-Oo is during the day (he stays in the crib), Benjamin says “Shh, Oo-Oo seeping.” If he ever sees a picture of Mack from the movie Cars he says “Shh, Mack seeping.”
11. “No” means “I don’t know.” For example, I showed Benjamin a picture of me from my honeymoon (only 3 years ago) and I said “Who is that?”. Normally he loves this game and correctly identifies anyone he even remotely knows. However he looked at the picture and said “no.” Ouch.
12. He loves cherries. He brings them to me and says, “Please open cherries.” (He wants me to cut them in half and take the pits out).
13. If you are playing a game, making a weird noise, singing a song, or anything of the kind and Benjamin likes it, he will of course ask for more. He will repeat back something you are saying or a phrase from the song to you. So lately he has been saying things like “More I’m gunna get you” and “More skippiloo” and “More tally man” (from the song: Come Mr. tally man, tally me bananas, daylight comes and we wanna go home).
14. “Mama! Dada!” He says this very deliberately as he points first to me and then to Grant. He wants us to first kiss each other and then both kiss him on the cheek at the same time. It is so adorable. Although the other day he said “Mama! Dada!” and pointed at me and the pillow. I don’t know what that was about.
15. Spaghetti is fageeeela. Thank you is deee dooo.
16. “Oh no what happened!?” Benjamin says this about everything now. The other day we were playing and I goofily rolled off of the sofa. It hurt a little bit more than I was expecting, but it wasn’t a big deal at all. Benjamin immediately freaked out rushed towards me and whimpering said, “Oh no Mommy what happened?”. I told him I was ok but that I had an owee knee. For 2 days he wanted to point over to the sofa and tell everyone “Mommy fell ala sofa owee carpet owee knee.”
What Lyla says.
Lyla is only 8 months old and she is already trying to talk like her big brother. She says “mama”, “up” and “uh-oh” all the time. She will repeat back any of those words if you say them to her, and we find that she actually uses them appropriately most of the time. However, this is probably mostly just a coincidence.
Oh, how I adore toddler-ese! My two year old is big on "What you doin?" these days. As in, she asks it constantly, no matter if you are doing the same thing you were doing three seconds ago!
What a great mom for having all of that down! Come on over and see a stylish toilet seat!
I love this idea! I am going to have to do it too!! My little almost two year old says, "ew gross daddy!" too! They are so cute, huh?!?! :)thanks for the idea!
So cute! I want these for Christmas! (with pictures of my babies in them, of course!) These would also be cute on school lockers (thinking like the mom of middle-schoolers!)