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In the last four days, Ezra has doubled his vocabulary. He’s been rattling off animal sounds for weeks, but on Friday he started saying “bird” and “cat” pretty consistently. Now he can also do “dog.” He says “on” when he wants to turn on a light. He suddenly says “apple,” “cracker,” and “cereal.” Last night he started saying “bath.”
Some of these are a bit hard to interpret: “apple” and “Bubbles” sound almost identical, and the distinction is all in the inflection and tone, like an Asian language. Cereal is “yull,” bird is “beeyoo.” He’s also got a mantra that we don’t totally understand, chanting “oh gee” over and over again. Perhaps he is an Original Gangsta.
His vocabulary of ideas and sounds is expanding rapidly at the same time. He can now do a rather intimidating chomping motion to mimic a crocodile, and if I ask him what a bee does, he tickles himself under the armpits and buzzes the way I do when we get to the bumblebee page in one of his books. He refers to his favorite book, Hop on Pop as “bop bop.” On Monday I taught him where his cheeks are, but for some reason when I say “Ezra, where are your cheeks?” he kisses me on my cheek. It melts me with the cute.
What’s amazing, of course, is not that my 18-month-old can say “apple” or buzz like a bee. It’s more the intense speed with which new words come into his vocabulary. One day he cannot say “apple,” the next day he can. I love wondering what words and concepts and tricks will come next. I’d be happy with anything, as long as it’s not either of Sandy’s current pet projects: trying to get him to string “why” and “me” together into one phrase, or teaching him to slap his own butt when someone says “humps.”
UPDATE:
Megan
— Jan 12 / 16:42Has he said, “Dad, put down the iPhone!” yet?
sarah
— Jan 12 / 16:51No, more like, “Dad, give me the iPhone!” Which he conveys by pointing at it and insistently saying, “Hello? Hello?”
Amy
— Jan 12 / 21:38I’m always amazed at how your posts are so similar to what’s happening with our Alex (20 months) – definitely a vocabulary explosion this week! Up until now he only said a few actual words but mimicked lots of sounds. I had to comment because his most-repeated phrase this week is “oh see” (with some swallowed sounds in between). After some investigative work we’ve detemined that he is saying “I want to see…”, as in “I want to see the big snowplow that just went by” or “I want to see what’s cooking on the stove”. Sounds kind of like Ezra’s “oh gee” mantra!
Anne
— Jan 12 / 22:40Ezra is so expressive with his animal sounds and actions — it’s very apparent that he is a highly clever boy. Sandy better watch out or Ezra is going to get him to say and do ridiculous things soon, too. Oh wait, that’s been going on the full 18 months, hasn’t it?
On a slightly different topic: Curses to you all. Ben will not stop demanding that we show him photos and videos of Ezra whenever we go anywhere near the computer. It’s really cute at first…and then it continues, and continues: “Ezah. Ezzz-Ahh. EZZZ-AHHH!!!!!” Meanwhile, he can’t say his own name. :)
Sandy
— Jan 13 / 10:00Anne: Ezra can’t say his own name either. Nor can he say Ben’s name. He’s obsessed with animals and that’s it. He’s going to be that kid in junior high that everyone crushes on but who’s oblivious to it all and who only wants to spend his time hanging out with the science teacher’s pet turtle.
I’m totally okay with that.
Gram Amy
— Jan 16 / 23:37“He’s going to be that kid in junior high that everyone crushes on but who’s oblivious to it all” Like father, like son.
Sandy
— Jan 19 / 14:34Wait WHAT?