Ezri loves this plastic baby from Target who she calls “Babeee.” I call him Lefty on account of the manufacturing error that gives him two right hands. Ezri likes to ride Lefty on her tricycle, strap him into her stroller, give him drinks from her sippy cup (thank you no drip valve technology) and even toss him onto the futon to tickle him.
Here are Ezri and Lefty. She has recently removed his clothing. He is not anatomically correct. Although, I did add a belly button with a sharpie marker as Ezri was displeased that Lefty lacked one.
I asked Ezri to kiss the baby. She, very sweetly, did just that making kissy noises.
Then without prompting the kissing turned into this.
Zombie Ezri must eat baby brains!
Ezri and I found this slide found at a garage sale today around the corner.
She got better at sliding once she was willing to let go of the fake plastic orange (also garage sale). She discovered the orange rolled down the slide which was also excellent. Thanks, neighbors, for the garage sale finds.
Tiger by Nick Butterworth
Ezri loved flipping the pages on this one. She kept saying, “tiger,” each time after I read the word tiger which occurs often in the book. I don’t think she got the concept of the plot which is that a small, orange, stripy kitten named Tiger is pretending he is an actual TIGER. But she liked pointing at the cat in the book and saying tiger, so it was a success. She also liked the page with the tiger’s ROAR on it. Anything where the reader makes interesting noises is a plus.
Her utterance for book has gained its ‘k” sound at the end and now sounds remarkably like the standard American English pronunciation of “book.”
She requests books by name now. She is my bibliophile.
So, here’s some of Ezri active vocabulary.
I am including what she says with what a translation of what it means.
Animals
Su – Sushi
Ma-chee – Manchi
Eh-ee – Ellie
duh – duck
kaaa – Cat
twee twee – bird
moo – what a cow says
buuk-buuk – what a chicken says
doh – dog
Items
baa – Ball
Baa-ahh – Bottle
Eesy Beh – let’s sing Itsy bitsy spider now
nitta needa- Knitting Needle (I show her these just to get her to say it, because it is so cute)
baby – baby
shoe – shoe
buh – book (note that bottle, book, and ball take some context to tell apart)
saahwing – swing
toe – toe
haa – hair
beh ee – belly
eye – eye
Other
ahhh duhn – all done
no – no
maaah – more
up – pick me up
dowwwn – put me down, an item has fallen down, I would like to go downstairs to the basement, I would like that cat to get down off that chair so I can use it (use context clues to determine the meaning)
hung (usually with hand to mouth) – hungry
Uh-Oh – Uh-Oh (It is now on the floor)
Whee – whee (or I see a slide)
tih to – tick tock (as in turn me upside down and swing me back n’ forth or turn my baby doll upside down and swing her)
nah! nah! (with fist tapping on wall or door) – knock knock
nay id – naked
happy – let’s sing if you’re happy and you know it
ruh-ruh – roll, roll sugarbabies
People
Daa (or lately sometimes Daa-Dee) – Dad
Maama – Mom
Ahmee – Amy (aunt)
Gaahm – generically refers to any grandparent
Jinee – Jenny (babysitter)
Meguh – Meghan (babysitter)
Jew – Julia (2 yr. old friend)
Shaa – Charlotte (2 yr. old friend)
I know she understands many many more words. It seems like she’s pulling new ones out each and every day. She mimics more and more of what is said around her.
Oops! by David Shannon ( A Diaper David Book)
Eric has been reading this one at bedtime A LOT lately. Luckily, it’s short.
Each two page spread features the baby, David, doing something with one of his first spoken words and his reaction to the situation.
For example, there is a picture of him with his ball thrown through a low window that says “Ball” on one page and “Uh-oh” on the other page.
There’s an illustration of a dog covered in macaroni next to a high chair where the reader sees only one of David’s dangling feet. The word on one page is “Dog” and the other “Oops!”
There’s an illustration of “Bath” with naked David saying “Ahh!”
The last illustration shows a sleeping David nestled against mom’s shoulder with “Mama” on one page and “Zzzzzzz” on the other.
There’s a lot of attitude captured in the illustrations with just a few words. Ezri likes to say “uh-oh” and “whee” along with the book. We will have to check out the companion book Oh, David! soon.
