It's been just over five months since I announced that Levi (22 months old at that point) was saying about half a dozen words. As was to be expected, his growing vocabulary picked up speed after that, but it really wasn't until about a month ago that we noticed dramatic increases in his verbal skills.
The desire to communicate with (or, rather, to) his little brother was a driving factor, I think: "Sit down, O-wo" was Levi's first full sentence. After that we got "more milk please" and a number of other small requests. The biggest breakthrough, though, was when he mastered, "May I have milk, please?" It's a phrase he uses for everything, substituting verbs and direct objects to the best of his ability: "May I dip [get] down, please?" "May I do ABCs, please?" (referring to typing on the computer). The ability to craft sentences is slowly making its way into his everyday speech; a few days ago, he spent a 10-minute car ride saying, "Gamma drive a brown car. Daddy drive a blue car. Oma [what we call Isaac's mom] drive a red car. Gampa drive a red truck," on repeat.
Just in the past week, he's made remarkable improvements in pronunciation. We still have a few endearing toddler-isms -- "a-ca-ca" (avocado) and "shoo-bob" (school bus), to name two -- but most of his words are largely recognizable at this point (well, to Mommy, at least). "Ga-ga" and Ga-ka" are now "Gamma" and "Gampa," and, though this is a little sad for us, "O-wo" is almost always "Owen."
I realize this may not be blog-worthy news to those of you whose children had their expected 15 words (or more) by 18 months, but it's been a long time coming for us. To know what's going on in my first-born's head (even if it is almost 100% letters, numbers, or clocks) is an amazing gift, after all these months. (I mentioned in my first post about this that I suspected he might spell before he spoke words, and that was nearly the truth.) And to see him flash that flirty grin and claim, "I love you, Mommy"? It is, literally, priceless.
The desire to communicate with (or, rather, to) his little brother was a driving factor, I think: "Sit down, O-wo" was Levi's first full sentence. After that we got "more milk please" and a number of other small requests. The biggest breakthrough, though, was when he mastered, "May I have milk, please?" It's a phrase he uses for everything, substituting verbs and direct objects to the best of his ability: "May I dip [get] down, please?" "May I do ABCs, please?" (referring to typing on the computer). The ability to craft sentences is slowly making its way into his everyday speech; a few days ago, he spent a 10-minute car ride saying, "Gamma drive a brown car. Daddy drive a blue car. Oma [what we call Isaac's mom] drive a red car. Gampa drive a red truck," on repeat.
Just in the past week, he's made remarkable improvements in pronunciation. We still have a few endearing toddler-isms -- "a-ca-ca" (avocado) and "shoo-bob" (school bus), to name two -- but most of his words are largely recognizable at this point (well, to Mommy, at least). "Ga-ga" and Ga-ka" are now "Gamma" and "Gampa," and, though this is a little sad for us, "O-wo" is almost always "Owen."
I realize this may not be blog-worthy news to those of you whose children had their expected 15 words (or more) by 18 months, but it's been a long time coming for us. To know what's going on in my first-born's head (even if it is almost 100% letters, numbers, or clocks) is an amazing gift, after all these months. (I mentioned in my first post about this that I suspected he might spell before he spoke words, and that was nearly the truth.) And to see him flash that flirty grin and claim, "I love you, Mommy"? It is, literally, priceless.
I couldn't find a good picture of the aforementioned flirty grin, but here:
I can't believe how old my first-born is starting to look!
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