These are a few of my favorite things...

I absolutely LOVE the stage of development where my kids are learning language. It's the BEST to hear things that come out of their mouths, and how they say them. That said, I have a few fave's from both Jack and Kate that I hold onto. Is it wrong that I don't want to let any of them go, even though of these on the list are already long gone?



Jack



Jack has a hard time getting his tongue around words and sounds a lot. It's common for him, when first learning a word, to get the sounds backwards, or to add in random letters that don't belong. When he was 20 mos old, I actually took him to Early Intervention, afraid that he had a speech issue. Now I just laugh at myself, b/c while he might not say things correctly all the time, he clearly has NO speech issues, and talks up a storm! Some of my all-time favorite Jack-isms:



1. Agits -- this is my mother's cat, Alex. He says it so purposefully, too "A-gits!" I love it.

2. Hackin -- Napkin. He asks for a hackin any time he sneezes, or gets something on his hands, or spills something -- he's a bit OCD, I will admit.

3. Biddy Nose -- Dirty nose. This is also when he sneezes. "Mommy -- I have a biddy nose. I need a hackin!" Love.

4. Tom-tabo -- Tomato. Jack loves Tom-Tabos.

5. Candy-roo -- Kangaroo.

6. Plencils -- pencils. Jack can color with plencils b/c he's a big boy. Katie is a baby, and she still needs clayons.

7. Little O-Times -- Little Einsteins. Every night he wants Little O-Times in Daddy's bed.



Songs -- Jack sings all day long. He always has, even as a baby. In tune even! But I love to hear how he interprets songs. One of his favorites is Silent Night. Here is the Jack version:



"Silent Night, HOOOOOLily Night, Aaaaalll is calm, Aaaaaalll is bite, Raaaabaaa birdies mother and child, Hoooolily innnna ho tender and MY-old, Sleeep in HEBENLY peeeeace! Sleep in hebenly peace." We sing this song most every night at bedtime at Jack's request.



Kate



Kate is definitely a maniac, but oddly enough she has this quiet little husky voice. With a fantastic lisp. So just about everything that comes out of her mouth is cute at this point. A clear favorite is "yes" which comes out from Kate as "Yeth." I also love her newest word, which is "no" and which is delivered with no uncertain terms, very emphatically, and slightly nasally "Noooohhhhh!" Usually accompanied by her hand up in the "Stop, In the Name of Love" position. Birdie is another front-runner for me, coming out as "Booa-dee! Booa-dee!" And please, which comes out "peeth!" She has her own word for grapes, which no one can figure out the origin of, but it sounds like "bubeeth! bubeeth!" I have no idea where she got that. She can also say "gapth" if prodded, but prefers "bubeeth." Her vocabulary at this point is mind-boggling, and she's starting to use a lot of sentences as well. "Way [where] Jack go?" being one of her favorites.



I just love all their little, cute baby words, and I dread the day they lose them, and instead just get annoyed when I insist on using them anyway. I can picture a 13 year old Jack rolling his eyes and saying "NO, Mother, I don't need a NAPKIN" when I ask him if he needs a hackin. LOL. But for me, hackin will never die, and Alex will always be Agits.