'Dat?'

Jonah is now talking as well as walking. His latest word is "dat," which he says while pointing to something (anything, really), as if to ask "What's that?" While he was out trick-or-treating as a little dinosaur the other night, it was his word of choice. (Noah, as Bob the Builder, said the obligatory "Trick or treat" and brought home lots of yummy goodies. Yay for us!)

For a nearly-14 month old, in fact, I'd say Jonah has a pretty good vocabulary. His first "word" was "uh oh," which he uttered around 11 months and hasn't stopped saying since. He also has a word for food that isn't particularly English, but which we recognize. At some point in the last two months, he added a definitively English word (or phrase, I should say) that catches most people by surprise: "Thank you." It's quite clearly stated and fairly well articulated as "Sankyou" or "Ankyou" and almost always causes folks to laugh. What other toddler's first words are so polite?

He's also learned "No" (though not "No thank you" -- I think that would be too much to ask at this point). And he has also been known to say "Eyyo" (hello) at the appropriate moment. And he used to say "Again" but I haven't heard that uttered lately.

Still, he's quite the conversationalist. None of the typical words -- mommy, daddy, ball, book, milk. Not even "Noah" (his "No" is clearly a "No" -- or "Nah" -- rather than "Noah"). Just hello, thank you, and no. Go figure.