So Much to Say

So that Quinn - he's talking - I know - when did THAT happen?  I have no idea.  I think he's been doing it for a while and I just didn't notice.  It's funny I was actually worried about Lily when she was Quinn's age because she had no words at all.  Then by 18 months she had like 60.  Quinn's followed a much more typical language development trajectory I think.  His first word might have been Jeh-Jeh or Dada or Mama - it's unclear.  Now his vocabulary consists of:

• "quack-quack": his term for duck.  Funny because this was also one of Lily's first words and what she called ducks for a long time.  What's up with that?  They don't call cows "moo-moo" or dogs "bow-wow".  What's up with the ducks, kids?  It's extra funny with Quinn because he's really insistent about it.  Also, a lot of things look like ducks to him.  If he sees anything yellow (esp if it's plastic) he goes nuts with the Quack Quack! Quack Quack!  Cracks me right up.  He gets kind of annoyed if you try to correct him.
• "hi" - also a very early word.  When we'd park at Kathy's house on my work days he used to start saying "hi" before I even got him out of the car.  Now he reserves it for actually seeing someone new.  But it's still adorable and awesome.
• "Jeh Jeh" - cantonese for big sister and Q's been saying it for month's now.  It's an easy first word and he LOVES Lily.  He always wakes up first and when it's time to wake her up he charges into her room saying "Jeh Jeh" over and over.  If he sees her playing on the back deck through the window in his room he runs over to it "Jeh Jeh, Jeh Jeh".  
• "cracker" - one day I got home from work and Quinn greeted me at the door with crackers in his hand.  He held one up and said to me "Cracker!".  Now it does sound a bit like, "quack quack" - but I'm certain he was saying something different.
• "hat" - we have a pretty simple "baby signs" board book that we picked up at a yard sale or something.  It's got about 8 simple signs and pictures of babys making the signs along with pictures of the object.  One of these is hat.  Quinn has been saying "hat" for about as long as he's been saying "hi".  He pats his head, making the sign for "hat" and says "hat.  Kathy tells us that whenever they go outside he reminds her with "hat, hat" and head patting.
• "hot" - also an early word - he did like his "h's", and I guess once you can say "hat", "hot" is not such a big leap.  Whenever food comes near him he says "hot, hot" and waves his hands.  And like Lily, the usage of "hot" has little to do with the actual temperature of the food.  He says it for anything that might, at some point in the recent or distant past, have indeed been hot.
• "ball" - another word that was picked up from the baby signs book and is usually followed with the sign for it (in that book it's a throwing motion).  My favorite use of "ball" was when we were having dinner at the new Flatbread's Pizza in Davis Square and he spent the whole time trying to get to the bowling lanes while looking tortured and yelling "ball ball ball".  Sometimes life is easier when they can't talk.
• "car" - also kind of sounds like "quack" and maybe "cracker" - but he definitely has some word that he uses when trying to say car.  He says it and points to pictures of cars in books - so I'm giving it to him.
• "teacher" - another word inspired by a book - this time it was the very popular "Brown Bear, Brown Bear".  He really digs that book (as Lily did at his age), but seems particularly taken with the picture of the teacher at the end.  He picks up the book and starts saying "teacher, teacher" and hands it to me.  Then he sits down and looks at me expectantly.  Also adorable. 
• "here you go" - I know, a big jump from all the others right?  And I'm pretty sure that only one other person (Hi G!) would have any clue what he was saying.  But when he hands us something he says something that sounds suspiciously like "here you go".  He does it consistently enough that we're calling it!
• "Mama" - just like his sister did, Quinn says Mama, but it doesn't seem to really mean me.  He mostly says it when he wants something, usually food.  Maybe he's confused and he thinks that I and food are somehow connected (hmmmm).  But really kid, you got your food from me for a year - now you should start working on Daddy - he's the REAL cook around here.
• "uh-oh" - one of my all-time favorite baby words.  I love when they walk around saying uh-oh.  He's been pulling this one out more and more lately.  Sometimes when he finishes eating he says "uh-oh" when he gets down out of his chair and sees the disaster on the floor.  It cracks me up because he looks at me like "geez Mom, did YOU make that mess?"  Just this week he started using it to indicate that something was not quite right with the current situation.  For example, I'm in the bathroom drying my hair - Quinn comes in and crawls into the still-wet shower - I remove him from the shower - "Uh-Oh! Uh-Oh!"

Phew - there might be more, but I'm out of steam.  That child does have a lot to say.  I can only imagine what it's going to be like in this house once he's stringing words together into sentences.