Vocabulary Explosion

Every new day with Lola and Locke brings a symphony of new words, and new ways of stringing together familiar words. The rate of learning for a 4-year-old is astonishing. Sometimes what comes out of their mouths is a regurgitation of overheard phrases with faint understanding of what they actually mean. But they understand more than I realized they could at this age. And now that they're sounding out more words, they're even learning through written words.

Locke has been developing his vocabulary by focusing on his latest passion, dinosaurs. He can tell you the names and eating habits of at least 30 dinosaurs, including Heterodontosaurus and Quetzalcoatlus. Often he can tell you how large it is in both feet and meters, too. But some of his best new lines are derived not from his beloved dinosaur library books, but from the commercials he's seen on the Discovery Kids network.

The other day he saw a commercial for a hair iron that straightens and curls. He was so impressed that he told me, "That hair worker works like no other hair worker!" Then, days later, as they were dressing in the locker room after their swimming lesson he said, "Regular irons might damage your hair." I wonder if he's trying to tell me something.

My favorite vocabulary words of Lola's are the ones that she gets a little wrong. Like the other day when she told me, "When I grow up and have babies, I'm going let my kids stay up ALL night so they can see the 'nocterminal' animals." Or when she told me that Locke knocked over her bowl but "he didn't do it on 'kurpose'."

The rate and the level of their vocabulary development is surprising, but even more surprising is how much I'm learning as a result of their learning. For instance, if I find myself at a cocktail party with a paleontologist, I'll actually be able to discuss their work with a slight degree of understanding. And I'll know not to ask about Brontosaurs. (For those of you not as current on dinosaurs as I, a Brontosaurus is now called an Apatosaurus.)

Not to be outdone, I'll fill you in on my own latest vocabulary acquisition. I picked it up at the kids' swimming lesson last week. When we arrived at the gym and the indoor pool was closed I was surprised to learn that their lesson was being conducted in the outdoor pool. It was sprinkling and 68 degrees outside. When I asked why the indoor pool was closed, I learned this little gem: "fecal incident." I'm hoping I never have reason to use that one again.

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?"