Talk Talk Talk!

I've been saying to hubby for awhile now that we really need to be video-taping Odin when he talks. For one thing, it's quite amusing, but the main reason is I know that one day soon he is going to just be TALKING. One of these mornings all the jabbering will disappear and be replaced with phrases like, "Mother, may I have some more syrup on this amazingly fluffy pancake?" (OK, maybe it won't happen *just* like that, but really, it's already happening!)

Lately Odin has been saying 2 and 3 word sentences. He has finally managed the phrase that all 2-year-olds by law must master, "I do it!" Actually, he's got it pretty early since he doesn't turn 2 for another month.

Odin is also trying his hand at longer sentences. These are generally unintelligible and sound something like this, "Mommy, dink uh wab ig ish na puppy!"

He has two things right now which he says a LOT. One is "Whassat?" The other is "Home?" The "home" thing is kind of odd I guess and if I wanted to get all "adoption-related-over-the-top" with it I could. Believe me, I go there in my head a lot. I wonder if he's finally got the words to process his big move from Taiwan last year and maybe he's just now able to verbalize that he understands what a momentous thing it was and he just wants to make sure that he really is HOME now. But I think the more likely thing is just that he likes to know where everyone is. So we have conversations like this all day:

Odin: "Mommy?"
Me: "Yes Odin?"
Odin: "Home?"
Me: "Yes, I'm home and you're home."
Odin: "Daddy?"
Me: "No, Daddy's at work."
Odin: "Home?"
Me: "Daddy will come home after work but he's not here right now."
Odin: "Puppy?"
Me: "Yes the puppy is home."

Then we go through the rest of the family - Nana, Papaw, Brittany, Grandma, etc. and some of our friends, too.

Then it reaches a whole 'nother level if we're away from the house. He is obsessed with the dog being HOME and us getting back home to the dog. I don't know - maybe it's just normal toddler stuff - separation anxiety a little bit maybe? At night when C's putting Odin down to sleep he will ask a few times about me, making sure I am still HOME. Some of you parents out there tell me - did your kids do this? I'm just curious.

Another thing he's started to do is SING. Like really try to sing! When we do the alphabet song he never misses G, P, V, Y or the NOW (as in "Now I know my ABC's..."). He also tries to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider, This Is The Way We Brush Our Teeth (not easy with a mouth full of toothbrush!), Jesus Loves Me, Rock-A-Bye Baby and several songs which I've made up since he came home. (These include such masterpieces as Who's My Little Burrito? (alternately known as The Drying Off Song), Monkey, Monkey, Who Is A Monkey?, and of course The Puppy Song.)

Odin's also started finishing sentences in his books. We have a couple of books that are his favorites that we read quite a bit and he just this week has begun to actually finish the sentences for us. His memory amazes me!

If I were really good (like a certain AMAZING blogger Mommy to H.C. who shall remain nameless) then I'd have all kinds of adorable video of Odin talking and singing and just being his cute little self. But he is not exactly the most cooperative little bugger. It's virtually impossible to even get a snapshot of him looking at the camera with a normal smile. Somehow when you tell him to smile he interprets that as: give me your funny vampire face for 1 second and then turn away quickly and run in the opposite direction. With the video camera as soon as he sees it he wants to be behind the camera looking THROUGH it. He won't just ignore it and go on about whatever cute thing he was doing. We may have a Spielberg on our hands, but I don't think he'll be a Pacino.