He Says She Says

Even at this early stage in Lola and Locke's language development, I could already write a post a day on funny things they say. But I realize that many of the posts would be funny only to me so I'm trying to be selective.

Being the outdoorsboy that he is, Locke got a little too friendly with some 6-legged friend and wound up with a few nasty bug bites on his ankles a while back. After determining that they were not life-threatening spider bites (which, as any appropriately paranoid parent will tell you, is the first concern), I started applying hydrocortisone cream a few times a day to them to keep the itching under control so Locke could sleep. After a few days of that, Locke evidently realized that the hydrocortisone made him feel better, so he learned to say "hy-dro-cor-tee-sone" so he could request a dose when the itching got to him. I couldn't determine whether he was a language prodigy or hypochondriac.

Then, yesterday, I picked up a zucchini muffin for their afternoon snack. I broke it into chunks and offered them pieces every so often as we strolled. Once, when I was asking Locke if he wanted a bite, I mistakenly called it a "pumpkin" muffin. He turned down the offer but couldn't resist correcting me, "zuKEEnee" muffin." Of course. That's what I meant to say.

Lola talks a lot more than Locke. A LOT more. But she's not as concerned about accuracy as he is. She figures that it's quantity that counts, not quality. But luckily she talks so much that, through much repetition, I've learned what she's trying to say. In most cases. And sometimes her mangled words are so darned cute that I can't bring myself to correct her. When she's getting really tired and loopy, she often adds syllables to words. For example, if you offer her an alphabet cookie, she might respond, "a-fa-be-ba-ta-coo-ca-kee?." And, although she can say "water" with some accuracy, she still prefers "wa-was," which I think is adorable.

One of these days I'll become technologically competent and put up a video or two. I have a hilarious one of Lola singing the ABC song. She's been able to recognize all the letters for some time now, and she can recite them in order. But when she sings them in the song, it's as if she's just singing the sounds she remembers from hearing it, not necessarily reciting letters in a melody. So the result is barely recognizable but extremely entertaining. It reminds me of reading translations of what children are actually saying when they recite the Pledge of Allegiance ("... and to the republic, for witches stand, one nation, uninvited...").

When they first started talking, Locke and Lola created versions of their names that they were able to say: her name is "Ya-ya" and his is "Yockie." They still call each other that. Kelly and I usually use their correct names when addressing them but I catch myself calling her Ya-ya from time to time. And I've heard Locke call her Lo-lo before (a nickname Kelly started soon after she was born) and I was both excited and disappointed. I realized that soon he's going to outgrow "Ya-ya" and start calling her by her real name. I'm not sure I'm ready for that. I'm fairly ashamed to admit that once when he called her Lo-lo, I acted like I didn't understand him and responded "Ya-ya?"

In Other Words

Since the last time I mentioned Locke's and Lola's speech development, their vocabulary has simply exploded. They can now repeat, somewhat recognizably, many things I say. Which puts a fair amount of pressure on me. Not that I've ever incorporated excessive expletives or used horrendous grammar. It's just that anything I say could be used against me, say, on my next trip to Target.

I've read it all before. In the pages of Parenting and Parents magazines. They always have a section of crazy things kids say to embarrass their moms when they're out in public. I guess it's worth it to let the whole parenting world know about a time when you were mortified, as long as your full name and city and state of residence makes it in print. I, however, would be just fine if the only appearance we made in a parenting magazine is for an interview with the parents of the first Nobel Prize-winning twins. You know, stuff like "What did you do when Lola and Locke were young to help develop their astounding talent?" But I digress.

Beyond this new ability to parrot words, lies a surprising understanding of the meaning of most of what they say. Many words still sound the same. For instance, I have a hard time trying to figure out whether Lola wants water or waffles, or whether Locke is talking about Duncan (a much loved train friend of Thomas) or Dragon (as in Chinese Dragon, another train in the Thomas and Friends lineup). But they know exactly what they're saying and they'll correct me with a slow head shake and a "no" when I guess the wrong thing. But their accuracy gets better and better each day and their depth of knowledge surprises me constantly.

The other day, I was reading a Mercy Meyer book to them in which Little Critter and his mom take a train ride to the big city. She buys the train tickets and lets Little Critter hold them. Well, as expected, Little Critter drops the tickets as they board the train and, on the next page, his mom is forking over more money to pay the conductor for the lost tickets. As soon as I turned the page, Locke pointed to money that Little Critter's mom was pulling out of her purse and said "more tickets, more tickets." I know that doesn't necessarily mean he's going to be the next Treasury Secretary (although, if recent tenures are any indication, he could be), but I was astounded that he understood this little exchange.

Lola continues to surprise me with her knowledge of letters and numbers. She knows all the letters and can count to 10, although 4 is a tough one and sometimes she replaces 7 with 19. She gets very excited when she's counting so, by the time she gets to 10, she's in full scream. I of course encourage it by being so excited for her as she's counting.

Lola and Locke are both learning the ABC song too. Right now it goes something like this: "A-B-C-B-D-B-D-B-W-X-Y-Z." So close.

So things are really changing fast now. They turn 2 this next weekend -- it's so hard to believe. Just like that they went from babies to preschoolers. I know I have a few years before they'll be in school but, if these 2 years have been any indication, I better start preparing myself now because it goes by in the blink of an eye.