Language

Rip is talking more and more. Problem: his words all sound the same. His big brother is DOL(N). This sounds the same as down, and also as stroller (DOL!), since his Ls and Ws are often indistinguishable at this time. Also, tow trucks and the word truck in general are very hard to distinguish from all of this. So, emboldened by the success of Grammy (DENNY, which is also what he calls the gummy vitamins) we asked him if he could say Grossmama. He smiles. "DOH!" Uhuh, that's going to help a lot! Can we combine it with the mama sound? No, one syllable is all anyone gets. What about... Grosspapa? Yes, big smile! "DOH!" Awesome. He can now talk entire sentences about how his grandparents should put him and his big brother down in the stroller to go see the tow truck, and only ever use ONE SOUND! That's totally not going to be confusing at all! The other funny language development is that the word no is nice and clear (sounds just like nose, as in "wipe my nose", but hey). Yes, on the other hand, is still just "Heh heh." This has led to situations where a crying Rip interrupts his tantrum to morosely fake-laugh at us to let us know that the thing we just discussed is, in fact, acceptable.