Listomania love

It is an amazing, amazing thing to watch a human being acquire language. I'm sort of obsessed with language anyway, so every time Zeke says something new or says something old in a new way, I'm thinking to myself, "I wonder what prompted that..."

These days, it's all about adding vocabulary words. So our conversations consist of either him asking, "what's that? what's this? what's that?" while pointing to random items, or of us making lists of things in a particular category.

We'll be driving to school, and talking about how Zeke is going to hang out with his friends for the day. He starts listing his friends:

"I see Connor..."

"Yep, you'll see Connor."

"And Lucy...."

"And Lucy...."

"And Gab-a-rella..."

"And Gabriella..."

"And Annaleah..."

"And Annaleah..."

Or we'll talk about going to the zoo.

"We go see giraffes ... and elephants ... and monkey ... and gorilla ... and tiger [which, to my amusement, he pronounces "ti-geh," like Jason does] ... and lion ... and zebra ..." and on and on.

We list Sesame Street characters, things we see out the window, colors, things we see at the aquarium, foods, and everything else that comes along in life.

My favorite, though, is when we talk about people that we know and love. Zeke is incredibly social and remembers everyone he meets. He sees enough of my family, either in person or in pictures (we spend alot of time looking at pictures) to know who everybody is. And he adores my parents and my brothers.

The other night we were lying in bed talking about people that we love and miss. He asked for Daddy, and I explained that Daddy was away at work but that Daddy loved him and missed him.

"I love Daddy," he said.

"Daddy loves you, too, honey."

"Love Papa," he added. "Papa" is what he calls my dad.

"Papa loves you."

"Love Mimi," he said. "Mimi" is my mom.

"Who else do you love?" I asked.

"Love Sam," he answered. My brother.

"Yep, we love Sam."

"Love Josh." My other brother.

"Love Emma." My niece/his cousin.

"Who else do you love? Do you love Mama?" I fished.

"Love Papa."

Yeah, yeah.

"What about Mama?"

"Love Sam."

Hmph.

"Mama loves you so much," I said, giving him a kiss. I was determined to get it out of him.

He gave me a cheeky smile, as if he knew what I was after. "Loves you, Mama. Snuggle?"

"Snuggle, baby."

Damn right.