Blake-Speak

Blake is adding new words to his repertoire every day! It is so exciting to have him be able to more effectively communicate what he is thinking, what he wants, what he is afraid of, etc. It is amazing to see how quickly he repeats things he has heard only a few times!

His newest words:

• "ON" - this is especially for the vacuum cleaner, which he now wants ON (previously he lived in reverent fear of the vacuum, dreading any time it was turned "on.") This change of heart comes well-timed, as I finally feels like I have the energy to clean, and now I have the nesting urge to clean/organize most of my house.
• "Oh" - Off. Okay, so maybe this is just BARELY a new word, but I usually understand what he is saying. This gets tricky, as you might imagine, since there are more than one uses for "Oh!" I'm dependant on context clues!
• "MAM-bo" - Lawnmower. While we were at an open gym play time I took a picture of Blake playing with a toy lawnmower he found. Blake somehow managed to change the settings on my phone so this picture is now my phone backdrop (technical genius that he is), so now whenever he plays with my phone he says "mam-bow" because he see the pic on the screen!
• "Dome" (sometimes "Dome-uh") - Phone. This is a change; he used to call the phone "Dada" but has finally caught on that we talk to "Dada" on the phone!
• "YAH-yee" - Allie, who lives in our basement.
• "YAY-neen" - Raining. I told him the other day that it was "raining" outside, and for the rest of the day he was pointing to the window saying "yay-neen."
• "Bane" - Plane.
• "Boon" - Prunes; a new favorite food.
• "PAM-ba" - Peanut butter. Sometimes he calls bread "peanut butter" since we often put peanut butter on his bread. He would eat peanut butter all day every day if we let him.
• "At" - Hat. He found a couple of Mama's hats in her closet and enjoys putting them on and then looking at himself in the mirror! 
• "OT!" - Hot. Usually he makes a motion with his hands to emphasize the point. Mama's hair dryer is "ot" after she uses it (and a "no touch" at that point), and he knows that almost anything that comes off the stove or out of the oven or microwave is "OT!"

Also, he now can make noises for various animals:

• Dog - "Wow wow wow" (his clear favorite)
• Cow - "Merr" (although sometimes he still says "bow wow" for a cow; I guess they kinda look alike!)
• Cat - "Meow"
• Monkey - "Oo oo oo" (with the cutest little lips to go with it)
• Lion - "arg" (all throat; hard to show phonetically!)
• Owl - "who who who"
• Bunny rabbit - "Bop bop"
• Bird - "caw caw" (particularly a parrot in one book; if this is wrong, blame Mama who fed him bad information!)
• Seal - "art art art" (clapping his hands; he loves having Mama and Dada do this one)
• Snake - "thhhhss"
• Fish (or pretty much anything in the water; dolphin, whale, etc) - "thplath thplath thplath!"

This is really fun!