Ishu’s language is exploding right now.

Everything we say, he copies.

Every time we flip through pages in books, he’s pointing to all the objects and labelling them. “Moon, cow, bug, butterfly, giraffe, rhino, cupcake.”

It blows my mind that he’s able to remember a word, even if exposed to it only one time.

We’ve stopped reading the text in books right now. He’s more interested in telling me all the words he knows. So, instead, I flip to a page and say, “What do you see?” And he, excitedly, rattles off all the things he notices.

I will add on. Pointing to things I know he doesn’t know yet. I’ll say, “And *I* see…” and, in the process, hope he hears new words. So many words!

My favorite thing he’s saying these days is “Cookie Monster.” It sounds like he’s saying “Dooki Mawna.”

But, obviously, there are so many words he learns from just listening to us talking. Words that we don’t explicitly teach him.

Just the other day, as we were leaving the apartment, I heard a new word come out of his mouth. He kept saying it. Over and over. Wanting me to respond. To somehow validate what he was saying.

“Tutu, aaja. Tutu, aaja,” he kept repeating, while pointing straight ahead.

He started to get frustrated when I wasn’t saying it back. When I wasn’t acknowledging it. But I was confused.

“What are you saying, Ishu?” I asked, trying to follow the invisible line to where he was pointing.

I turned my head and saw that he was pointing at the plant.

“Tutu, aaja,” he said, eyes meeting mine.

A few seconds passed and then I made the connection.

It was reinforced later that day when we got back home and he walked around to the other plants, saying “Tutu, aaja.”

Some context?

A few days ago, Ishu ripped off a leaf from our Monstera plant.

I was not home when this happened, but Ankur tried to explain to Ishu that he had broken it. “Toot gaya,” he told Ishu. It means, “It broke” in Hindi.

So, for the next couple days, any time Ishu inched closer to the plants, I said, “Uh-oh, toot gaya, aaja” (meaning, “It’s broken, come here”).

And I guess we’ve said it enough times where, now, Ishu thinks that’s the name for “plants.”

“Tu tu, aaja.”

We correct him. Sometimes.

“That’s a plant,” I’ll say. Knowing that, some day, he’ll catch on.

But I’m also perfectly content with the name he’s chosen.

It’s better. Because it’s funnier.

SLOW DOWN ISHU! Your little spongey brain is making connections faster than I can keep up!

Question of the Day:

What are some funny things you’ve heard a kid say?