Bicetoedoes and Matzimoes

Now that he's been talking for about a year, Jonah's vocabulary has grown exponentially (more than 500 words, many of which he groups together in rudimentary sentences). And he also has quite advanced gross motor and fine motor skills, if I do say so myself. And although he does now call himself Jonah (instead of Nonah), the pronunciation of some letters and letter combinations remains a challenge.

Granted, Adam and I can (usually) understand him. And his teachers can, too. Now that he's graduated from the toddlers' room, he no longer has Heidi and "Pah-ween" (Pauline) as his teachers. In the young preschool room his teachers are now "Warren" (Lauren) and "Abenda" (Amanda). Abenda is actually quite pleased with her new name -- she says it makes her sound ethnic.

One of my favorite words in Jonish is "bice-toe-doe" (bicycle). The last two syllables are approximately the same as the way Jonah pronouces turtle. How bicycle became a hybrid of bison and turtle, I'm not sure, but it's so cute to hear Jonah excitedly exclaim "BICETOEDOE! BICETOEDOE!" when he sees someone riding a bike down the street.

Today on the way in to school, we passed a piece of construction equipment formerly known as a "boo-zo-zo," but this time Jonah looked at it and said, "boodozer" (L's being rather difficult for a 2 year old to pronounce). It was so sad.

Suddenly I understood why, 30-some years later, my parents still refer to marshmallows using the same word I apparently used to say: matzimoes. He may be only two, but my baby is already growing up... *sigh*