Verbal progress

Tobey

Tobey is starting to surprise us by reading words on signs by sight. As you could imagine, they are mostly from signs.

OFF
Off
No
zoo
EXIT
Disney

Yes, you read that right, Disney. We were driving past the Tracy outlet and Tom says, "Tobey, look, what does that sign say?" And he says, "Disney!" For all the effort to keep commercialism out of our house, one of the first words he surprises me with is "Disney". Where? How? We don't have a single Disney book, he's seen Nemo maybe 2 or 3 times ever, we certainly don't point it out and we haven't ever been in a Disney store. Ug, the ubiquitousness!

So for all of his verbal progress, I still love his little stumbles or misunderstandings, a little reminder that my growing boy is still a little boy.

hostible - (hospital)
aminal - (he usually correctly says animal but once in a while stumbles)
presnet - (present)
elegator - (elevator)

In fact, tonight when he was doing some letters on the computer, he said "elegator" and I corrected him to say "elevator". And he corrected himself. And I thought that maybe I shouldn't have corrected him because I liked the cuteness of "elegator".

As far as those letters on the computer, Tobey loves doing "wooden block letters" at starfall.com, despite my annoyance at the odd songs. He's able to operate the mouse himself which makes it easier for us to let him navigate while we watch (I'm trying not to use it as a babysitter). I think that website is a big reason he can sound out his letters and start using phonics to learn words. With enough practice, I think he'll recognize a lot of those words by sight. Maybe he already does, but just how often do you see the word "ox" in everyday life?

Eli

So I'm constantly complaining at how Eli doesn't say anything. And I don't just say, "Eli doesn't say anything", I say, "Eli doesn't say AAAAANYTHINGGG."

But if I step back and be fair, he's making a little progress. Words he can and does say:

Dad-dehh (Daddy)
Bob-behh (Tobey)
E-yiii (Eli)
Mah-meh (Mommy, said only 4 times ever)
Uh-oh
Whoa

Signs:
Milk
Music (when he wants the CD player on)
Water
Eat
More
Poo-poo (well, he looks at us and points to his diaper, is that sign language?)
Fix-the-heel-of-my-shoe (he made up his own sign for it)

And he has been babbling for a while which is cute, if only I weren't so obsessed by him starting to speak real words. But Tom and I have caught him a couple of times babbling something that actually makes sense. Tom asked if I've videoed him in his "pre-verbal" stage yet and I haven't. If he's on the verge of becoming verbal, I better get on it. But you know, second kid, I haven't gotten around to it!