Some of us have a lot to say

I've noticed a glaring omission in my blog. By centering my posts around photos I have failed to capture one of the most significant (and hilarious) facets of Judah's personality: his verbal communication. To blog about Judah without talking about the things he says is to miss out on one of the most fun and fastest developing aspects of this little guy.

To put it simply, Judah is a talker. It seems like he never stops talking - there is a running commentary on absolutely everything he is experiencing. We always know what is on his mind!

Not only does he label everything he sees; he also announces everything he does before he does it, which Doug and I have found quite helpful. For example, he says "throw sippy!!" right before he hurls his sippy-cup onto the floor in frustration, which gives us the opportunity to at least try to convince him otherwise. (This works for a great many other items besides sippy-cups. The word "throw" followed by some object he's holding is a very common refrain in our house).

Another helpful announcement is the general "no no" declaration. If Judah is in the other room and we hear him say "no no," we know that he is poised to do something we don't want him to do and is waiting for us to come in and confirm the admonition. If we don't respond right away he stands there and repeats "no no" until we do. He's clearly much more interested in getting the confirmation of his understanding than he is in doing the forbidden act. Fascinating.

Lately he has been very interested in saying hello and good bye to people and things. Very often when I get him from his crib in the morning and take him downstairs for breakfast he says "good bye room, good bye door, good bye night-light," all the way down the stairs. When we arrive in the kitchen he says "hello table, hello grapefruit," and so on. Just recently I was in hysterical laughter because before I had a chance to turn on the lights in the kitchen he said, "hello dark!" This has recently expanded into "good luck," which he has heard us say a few times. So now he wishes good luck to a great many people and objects we pass by. I'm sure they all appreciate it.

At first we were all marveling at his rapidly growing vocabulary. But lately it's become not just about the number of words he knows, but the concepts he's able to express. For example, "grapefruit, cut knife, sharp, careful." Not exactly a coherent sentence, but he certainly conveys an idea. Or my personal favorite, "grandpa eat pills, put mouth" (Judah is exceedingly interested in grandma and grandpa taking pills - that's the subject for a whole other post).

I think I can safely say that the development of verbal communication has been the most fun and rewarding aspect of parenthood for me. His use of language (absolutely all the time) provides such a wonderful glimpse into his little brain and his ever increasing understanding of the world around him. It's also extremely entertaining!