Do you speak toddler?

Nick is very ready to communicate with the world, and talks a lot (I wonder where he gets that from?). The only problem is that most of us don't speak toddler. Nick finds it very frustrating that we all don't understand exactly what he is trying to say all the time. Below are some words Nick has mastered of the English language, along with some words from his own toddler language, Nickenese.

Ball- This was one of Nick's first words and most definitely his favorite. He uses it to refer to anything spherical, not just traditional balls. For instance mommy's pearls are balls, watermelons are balls, grapes are balls, etc.

Shoe-It is not surprising given my affinity for shoes that Nick has mastered this word. This word began the day we made a big fuss over getting him his first pair of big boy tennis shoes from the New Balance store. He not only says this word every time you put his shoes on, you can also request that he get his shoes and he will retrieve them.

Dog- Team Upton has three full-time canine members along with additional part-time dog members so Nick latched on to this word pretty quickly, plus the D sound is fairly simple to make for children. We still have to work with making him say the g sound at the end, but every morning when Grady and I go to get Nick up he points at her and says "dog." He also begins saying dog as soon as we get to Deenie's house and he hears Nora barking.

Cow-Recently while reading his Farm Peekaboo book from Aunt Kim, Nick was pointing to all of the animals and calling them dogs. I realized we should begin trying to identify the animals for him and have him try to say what they are. Cow was difficult because of the cah- sound, but he got it. Now he runs to his little people cow at Deenie's and says cow. The only problem is the cow at Deenie's and the little people giraffe he has at home are the same shape so he often calls his giraffe a cow, but giraffe is outside of his linguistic grasp right now.

shi shu- This phrase is usually accompanied with a pointing finger. We have determined that it roughly translates into "what's that?" since the point finger usually indicates Nick wants you to tell him what he is point at. This is one of his favorite "questions" to ask. We are well on our way to the 500 questions a day asked by most toddlers :)

tsk-This word translates (to the best of our knowledge) into this. He points of hold something he wants and when you ask him, Nick what is that? He usually responds tsk. Either that or he is constantly disappointed in something I am doing and saying tsk tsk.

Ah-Oh- This precious phrase of Nick's definitely corresponds to "Uh-Oh." When Nick spent some time with Aunt Betty last week, he would dump out his crayons on the floor and Aunt Bet would say "Uh-Oh, Nick lets pick them up." Now Nick will go Godzilla on his toys or a tub of crayons immediately followed by "Ah-Oh." He thinks this game is hilarious...thanks Aunt Bet ;)