Stream of a toddler's consciousness

I'm long overdue for another post about what Judah's been saying, since that remains the primary manifestation of his personality. He still talks absolutely all the time and Grandpa recently came up with the perfect description of Judah: He is the physical embodiment of twitter. All day long he provides continuous "status updates" - remarks about something he's observing, something he's doing, something he wants, absolutely anything that pops into his little head.

His sentences are getting longer and longer and more and more complex. One jaw-dropping example was when he was at Grandma and Grandpa's house during a rain storm. He was standing at the window and he said, "Judah looking out the window, watching the rain fall down to the ground." I wasn't there, but the report is that he said it three or four times, as if to make sure he was getting it right.

He still refers to himself in the third person - "Judah want some milk," "Judah go outside." But he's beginning to use other pronouns, like he, she, they, him, her. He also appropriately uses the plural - "one apple, two apples." He even says "one person" and "many people." I know this all seems mundane. The truth is, I just find it fascinating to witness the development of language.

One of the interesting things I've observed about his language learning is that it seems like sometimes he learns a phrase first, and then gradually figures out what it means and how to use it. For example, on a recent outing to see the cherry trees Judah heard me say "oh my gosh, look at that!" and he started repeating it over and over. In following days he would say it at various random times, not necessarily in appropriate circumstances. In response I would find things he might be looking at and say, "yes, look at that big bowl of cereal!" Then the other day he was watching a dog jump to catch a frisbee and he exclaimed, "oh my gosh, look at that!" It seems like he let the phrase ruminate for a while until he really got a handle on what it was for. Fascinating.

He's really gotten so adept with language that sometimes it seems like he understands everything (which is a bit frightening). But then there are some funny moments when we're reminded that, in fact, he's still figuring things out. Like the other day when I was reading him a book that had a picture of a rhino in it. I said, "see, the rhino has a big horn on his head," and Judah responded with an emphatic, "beep beep!!" I of course had to explain that it's a different kind of horn.

There are so many more stories, but that has to do it for now. I'll close with some of his funniest words, or, shall we say, his own versions of words, along with the translation.
Sampoop (shampoo)
Light bud (light bulb)
Silp (spill)
Sirt (stir)
Lallow (yellow)
Capine (clementine)
Capit (chapstick)
Lumu (living room)
Heaty (heater)
Vacakeenie (vacuum cleaner)
Cayrons (crayons)
Beef turkey (beef jerky - this is Doug's all-time favorite).