Today, I figured out where he got that. All day, he would preface each word with the initial sound and a long e. For example:
Chair=che-chair
Sam=see-sam
Bus=be-bus (I started beat boxing once or twice when he said this one)
potty=pee-potty
juice=gee-juice
You get the picture. As my English, Language Arts, Communications, and TESOL degrees all testify, I love language and especially studying how one aquires a language (first or second). For this reason, I have been having a blast observing as John aquires the English language. He's already noticing the onset of words! Maybe I should try to teach him his letters already; this new stage seems to lend itself perfectly to such a task. That's easier said than done though.
Every time we go down to Indiana and he spends time with his cousin Anna, he comes back with some new aspect of language. I love it. His little brain is like a sponge right now, soaking up all of this information. I am just amazed at how much he can process.
I've also been taking advantage of this stage by trying to incorporate a bit of espanol into our daily communication. He only uses a few phrases without prompting (te amo, agua); however, lately he's been responding (in English) to the questions that I ask him in Spanish. When I asked him "Que haces?" he replied with "Drive" (he was driving his car around). When I asked "donde esta el coche?" he said "hiding" (it was parked under the couch). I'm not sure if he understands what I'm asking or if he's just good at reading context cues and inflections. Either way, I'm going to try to keep it up.
My other little language learner is Audrey. She's not learning words, syntax, semantics, or whole languages yet, but she is definitely finding her voice and exploring sounds. Her raspy laughs and high-pitch squeals are oh-so joyful. Her other new thing is completely unrelated to language. She is trying to move all the time. While laying on her belly, she can turn in circles, push herself backward, wiggle and kick, get up on her knees to rock, and do mini-pushups. Right now she is staring at me giggling and alternating between mini-pushups and sticking her bum up in the air and kicking her feet out while her whole body jolts back and forth. Not much actual forward motion, but she is getting there! Eric says she is moments away from crawling.
Here is a quick video of Audrey right now (she started to get frustrated as soon as I started filming her):
And here is a nice long 10-minute view of my kids talking to themselves from earlier this evening:
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