Words, words, words

There's sort of no point in keeping track of Elijah's new words at this point . . . he's starting to come out with them too fast to track, several each day at least. So, here's the last list I'll make, just to remember the "first" of his words:

Please
Thank you
Flag
Broccoli
Avocado
Quiche
Apple
Ballerina
Love
Lid
Lap
Grass
Touch
Push
Backhoe
Motorcycle
Airplane
Roller
Ship
Lay down
Sit down
Blue
Green
Kiss
Bedroom / room
Oval
Diamond
Ladybug
Monkey
Snake
Hippo
Elephant
Caterpillar
Giraffe
Eye
Backyard
Big
All done

He also can tell you what all the letters of his name are if you point to them ("Elijah, what's this?" "E." "Elijah, what's this?" "H" . . . ) and I just realized the other day that you can turn the tables and ask him what everyone and everything on the bus is doing ("Elijah, what do the wipers on the bus do? "Swish, swish." "Elijah, what do the babies on the bus say?" "Wah wah wah.").

New Batch

Elijah has a whole new batch of words. He's also been saying some pretty awesome sentences. 3am the other morning: "Mama, help . . . more ninny-milk." He tells long stories with what he's got. When he and his dad go out in the jogging stroller early in the morning he comes back and tells me: "Dada, lolo (stroller), honk honk (geese), mmmmm (moon), guck (truck) . . ." I'm also pretty amazed at how much he remembers. We passed a school bus and then immediately after it a fire truck on the corner of our street last week and now whenever we go in the front yard he says: "Bus, weeooo weeooo weeeoo." Also we checked a book out of the library and read it a few times and the next time we went back to it he knew the noises for "how each animal eats": bear = grum grum, cat = lippity lap, beaver = crunch munch, giraffe = rip-scrunch, etc. And his problem solving skills are sharpening. At the library last week he was holding a piggy bank toy and went up to the Playskool playhouse wanting to open the window shutters. He realized he'd need his hands, but wouldn't give up the pig, so he put it between his chest and the house and leaned on it. Problem was, he was then leaning on the shutters, which open out. So he put the pig back in his hands and thought. So then he put the pig on the floor, opened the window, picked up the pig, threw the pig through the window, shut the shutters, end. Anyway, here are the words I can decipher (there are of course many more that I can't yet figure out):

stroller (lo-ler; cute, but can't really compete with cousin Jack's amazing stro-ler-ler)
wind
close
bean
noodle (a very emphatic nhoo-nul)
rice
seeds
raisins
bunny rabbit
butter
yuck yuck (for any stray hairs, spiders, or spider's web, of course)
snacks
belt
grrrr (for scary face)
la la la (for song)
pillow
light
wall
bed
shirt
bulldozer
helicopter (says "clop")
bath
scissor
Pat and Pat's house (our neighbor)
penis
bare butt
back
belly
bear
zebra
blocks
umbrella
yes
off
in

PS - Pics up at Shutterfly for August.
PPS - He is still the world's worst sleeper. Last night he was awake from midnight to about 3:15. Cries a little, snuffles, rolls around, can't get comfortable, sits up and talk, complains, laughs, talks some more, whispers to himself, eyes wide open, rolls around, can't sleep, sits up, crawls down the bed, repeat. New plan is to cut off all nighttime ninny-milk cold turkey (except for nursing to sleep). It's getting drastic. A year and a half later and none of us is sleeping. Still. For shit's sake.

Some S P R A W L reviews

I told Dad I'd be sure to post reviews here, when I got some. So here is one at Bookforum. And here is the start of one at The Believer.