Talking

Iyyar got a little bit of a late start talking. He didn't really say anything until he was eighteen months old--just Barak's name and, once in a while, Abba. Now, at exactly 22 months, the word you hear from him most often is "yeah!" followed closely by "NO!" Lately there's been a whole slew of new words from him: waffle ("wa fo!"), chatul ("ah too!"), bear, gate, etc. He can say Imma ("Amma!") but most of the time just calls me Abba. Easier to say, I guess. And he clearly understands quite a lot in both English and Hebrew--he'll get me socks out of drawers if I ask for them (even socks for Barak if I specify socks for Barak), put his coat in the closet upon request, etc. When Asnat made her heroic return a couple of weeks ago, she said in Hebrew, "Let's go brush teeth!" and he went straight to the bathroom. He's moving right along with that language thing.

So far, though, I haven't heard much in the way of putting words together, with the exception of phrases he got ready-made from Barak (notably, "I don't want it!" and "Open it!") I've never gotten an answer to a question that wasn't yes/no. Well, okay, if you ask him if he's poopy he answers you by saying "boopy!" but that's still really a binary-option question, isn't it.

But today, we got something new. We were at Chana's house across the street, and all of a sudden there was Iyyar, proudly handing me... an obviously not at all child-proof electrical outlet cover.

"Iyyar! Where did you get that?"

Iyyar, very pleased with himself: "The wall."

Wow. I mean, mild horror about the outlet cover, overridden by pride in linguistic virtuosity.

Oh, and today's favorite from Barak: we saw a bunch of pine needles squished in some snow. Barak told me that he didn't want to step on them, because they would hurt his foot. I said no, they aren't sharp, even though they're called needles. They're from a pine tree. I showed him a pine tree, and he considered. Ah! And a lightbulb went off. "Pineapples grow on the pine tree, right?"

No, but they should.