One of NeutronLad’s first words was “elmo”. No, not the Sesame Street character. He rarely watches TV, and when he does, it’s not Sesame Street. No, “elmo” was his word for truck. Cars he calls go-gos (no doubt from the many readings of Go Dogs Go he’s enjoyed) but trucks have always been elmos. In recent months, he’s mixed this up. Dump trucks? Dumpy elmos. Big trucks? Bumpy elmos. No matter how many times we said otherwise, trucks were elmos.
Until last week. When, while walking up the stairs to his room, he decided to call them trucks, and keep calling them trucks. They’re simply not elmos any more. In fact, if you say “elmo”, he corrects you and says “truck”.
All of this is part of his toddler word explosion. Car. Grass. Green. Money. Bike. Blue. Saint. Move. Play. The words just keep coming, as do the combinations, as he tells the dog (that’d be saint) to move, points out blue trucks, and exclaims that he wants to play on his bike.
It’s amazing to watch, and it’s one of those parenting things that’s difficult to relate to non-parents when you’re having those inevitable “why have kids?” discussions. It’s fascinating to see him put everything together, and to suddenly be able to talk about things. It’s the sort of thing you don’t get to experience if you don’t have kids in your life, and its not something I’d ever want to miss.
Of course, a few NeutronLad-isms remain. He calls his grandmother “tre-trow” for reasons none of us can understand. Although he can say “Jazzy” (the nickname of our nextdoor neighbor) he steadfastly refuses to say “Jordan”, instead making this twin-trilling sound that never ceases to amuse. I’m sure these too will pass as he gets older, just like ‘elmo’ did, and for now, I’ll just continue revel in Neutronlad’s adventures in being two.