a man of many words...

Over the weekend, Gobbles sort of exploded into speaking.  Now he's been saying words here and there forever now, and been babbling gibberish for quite some time too.  But all of the sudden, something just clicked and his vocabulary expanded exponentially.

I'll start with the best word ever, EVER, Mommy.  Granted, he's been saying this for awhile, but it's always come out in sort of a whiny momamomamoma.  But recently, it's quite clear.  MOMMY!  With a smile.  I think daycare helped out a bit because they felt bad when Gobbles came home saying "Terri", one of his teachers, all day and all night. 

On the way to school I quiz him, I ask which kids will he see today.  "Gobbles, are you going to see Layla" Yaya "Tori?" Tooowi "Aiden?" Ayen "Carter?" Ca-ta "Abby?" Ab-BE! "Ellie" Ayee.  Oh I could go on forever.  We say the names of his aunts & uncles and he can repeat them all back.  And Nana, and Pop.  Unfortunately there are three names he still has trouble with - his own, a little boy Patrick in his class, and, god forbid, Grandmom.  Don't worry Mom, he's saving it for someday special.  At least that's what I can say now that he's finally saying Mommy!

Besides the names, I don't know what words he can't say!  There are the old favorites - giggle, wiggle, shoes, cheese, teeth, daddy, bus, truck, car, ouch, dog, woof, moo (mmmm), roar, this, that, go, stop.  And all of the sudden, out of his mouth I've heard egg, puppy, milk (gook), cup, cookie, cracker, up, open, tree, house, book, bike, i love you (i yai yai), water (ok he doesn't say water - he says aqua.  my bilingual boy, haha).  Finally, last night, I felt like one of the items on my mommy checklist can be ticked off - Gobbles finally said Please.  Sure, it followed a thirty second tantrum and I had a cookie in my hand, but he said it.  What a well mannered child!

There is one problem that has been revealed with this onslaught of words.  Oh boy.  I thought I had cut back on my swearing when he was born, but I guess not enough!  The other day during rush hour I let a "Jesus Christ" slip and didn't even realize it until I heard a Chrise! enthusiastically pipe up from the backseat.  Yup, he is forever listening.  Listening and repeating.  As I pulled my rammy son out of his high chair this morning to go brush his teeth, I tried to get him to calm down with a stern "hey buddy!" Well it stopped the tantrum, my son looked back at me, square in the eye and repeated hey buddy!!

And so it begins :)

Hey Buddy! Just because i'm decked out in camo with my gut hanging out...



And I'm a bit of a motorhead...

...doesn't mean i'm not smaaaat!  CHEEEEEESE!!!!