the latest boy talk

(This is more for me to record than you to read, but you're welcome to join in for a chuckle.)

I realized this week that Cas's first body part he pointed to was his eyes. This totally fits his personality - he is a very observant child. He sees brown finches in the tops of 15-yr old maple trees across the street. He yells at red lights 1000 feet away. He notices little things and likes to take things apart, tie things, hook things, put them back together, work puzzles, look for his letters "C-A-S, Cas, Cas, Cas, C-A-S! Hey, look mom, I have that letter in my name!", watch TV (he would sit there all day long if I let him), read books, etc.

Jake's first body part he points to? His MOUTH. And guess what...he is extreeeeemly vocal. At 17 months he already says all kinds of sounds and words: ball, bottle, milk, more, sit, sip, up, Cas (KAAA!), uh oh, bump, beep, mop, hi, mom, mommy, da, dada, there, where (where ball?), bye, big bird (beh buughh), naa (nana or banana)... and I am forgetting a few.  His sound effects include a dinosaur growl, various transportation devices, and an extra-robust driving sound when on a lawnmower at Lowe's or car grocery cart.  And  he will copy just about any sound you say if he's in the mood. 

And that's just the sounds we pull from him - he jibber-jabbers all day long. One day I had my usual to-go coffee cup in the microwave. I'm telling you he pointed to it and said, 'ma's bottle.'

He says "Hi" to people at the grocery and keeps saying it louder and louder at them until they say hi back. 

The other day we were playing with little Sesame Street characters, and he came up to my Bert with his Big Bird and said, "Hi!  Hi!  Hi!" He is totally role playing! Today he had a banana in the car and started playing with the peel. One peel said 'hi', and the other gave a dinosaur growl back! I couldn't believe it.

Meanwhile Cas is hiding behind my leg in a squatting position whenever he meets someone new or unexpected. But he continues to flourish at home, his favorite place. Some of his new words and sayings:

awesome (this is the current favorite) (mom, I'm awesome, you pretty)

terrific 

fantastic (when I opened up the sunroof on our first warm day last week)

different

instructions

instruments (Quincy likes to play them) (oh he found my flute the other day! you should see his flute dance.)

lobster (sounds like monster)

hammering (we're working on 3-syllable words at speech - which will be ending in 2 weeks!!!)

I don't want any those choices

Hippeee (yippee)

I poop-ed  (pooted)  (heeheehee)

Leaf-ess  (leaves)

His first joke!!!!! Got to put this one in. We were watching American Idol and the guy named Danny was singing. It went like this:

Dad:  Cas, do you like danny?

Cas:   No, I like bacon.

We all died laughing and now have our first family joke originated by Cas. You just say,  "hey Cas --- I like bacon!" and we all start belly-laughing. The crazy thing is Jay figured it out - the boys often eat breakfast at Henpeck Market on Saturdays and run into our friend Danny, who always gives Cas a piece of his bacon!!!!!!!!  

He is starting to tell his own stories, not just while reading a book, but making them up in the car. The plot usually involves jumping, falling, catching, flying, a couple different animals, and a yay! for a happy resolution, then he says: The End. Yep.

We have a print of Jesus breaking bread with the two men from Amaeus in our living room. This has been my jumping off point for talking about Jesus. (Which I still don't really know how to do with a just 3-yr-old??? He is real, not pretend, not just a picture like your books, He IS here with us even though you can't see Him... not sure how much Cas is understanding at this point.) One day (referencing the painting) I was telling Cas that Jesus can always see him because He is always close and always in our house and with us wherever we go. So he starts doing various jumps and dances and tricks and looking at the painting saying, can Jesus see me now? Can Jesus watch me do this? Did Him see that jump? (Which was a nice break for me - we have definitely arrived at the "watch me" phase.) Him can't see me, Him not looking at me! (so I had Cas stand in the spot where Jesus' eyes look right at him.) Coming home from church Sunday we were talking about his lesson (how cool is that???), and he ended it with his usual connection: "Hey, we have Jesus at our house!" To which I always agree heartily. Then He added a bonus: "Jesus made me, Jesus made you, mama, Jesus made dada, Jesus made Jakey, Jesus made me, Cas, too!!!"  

I love hearing him say the Name Jesus. It is the sweetest.