From the Mouths of Little Dudes

[Originally written 2 Aug 09. Forgot to post!]

Why is it ordinary, every day words sound completely new and adorable from the mouths of toddlers?

Caleb is rapidly approaching two and quickly picking up new words almost every day. He's stringing together the words to communicate whole thoughts! It blows my mind. Today at the playground, he managed to climb up a rather scary ladder-like set of stairs that cause my heart to beat fast every time he appraoches them. But for the fist time, he got up to the top all by hisself. As he reached the top of his mini Mount Kilimanjaro, he annouced, "I did it!" I was so stinking proud of him.

He also learned the words "chocolate milk" today, which come out more like "cah-cae mook." And he's keen on adjectives today. Everything is a big truck ("bee cuck!") or a tall tree ("tah tee") or a shiney car ("siney cah"). In fact, the other day as I was squatting down to clean some of his meal time mess from the walls, he pointed at my backside and said, "Butt!" To which I replied, "Yep, that's momma's butt." Caleb responded, "Big butt!" Thanks, buddy! Thanks a lot!

He's also getting better with names. He knows some of his classmates names, his teachers, and a few of his out-of-school friends. And he's finally trying to say his own name, although I don't think he beleives his name is Caleb. One of his classmates calls him "Caybub", and his own pronouciation is more like "Taybuh." But he's getting there!

He recognizes people in pictures and loves to sit on my lap as I browse through pics on Facebook. He recognizes his grandparents - Mama and Bubba are my folks (MamMaw and Bubba Bob), and Nana and Papa are Tommy's (Nana and Grandpa.) And he's starting to get to know his cousins. Sophia is Feeah, and he loves to give her pictures kisses. But my favorite are his names for my brother and his son. Uncle Steve and Ben are "Cheese" and "Bun."

Caleb is also trying to sing along to songs. He'll throw in a word or two in songs he recognizes such as Little Einsteins' theme song, Johnny and the Sprites, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. But MAN, did it throw me for a loop today when he tried to sing along to Beyonce's Halo! No kidding. We were driving to base, and he was busy sucking on his middle fingers and zoning out when suddenly he popped those fingers just as Beyonce was singing "Baby, I can see your halo, " and he belted out "Hayo!"

Honest to goodness, Caleb's first non-kiddie song was Beyonce. Weird.

It's fun, all this chatter. He loves to say "HI!" to anyone who will listen and tells them what he's up to. "I eat!" He's also rather bossy, and quite often tells me and Tommy to dance if we're eating out and there's music overhead.

At some point, all this chatter will get to be a bit much and I'll wish for a volume or mute button. But for now, it's all novel and new and fascinated, and I love listening to my little chatter box.