10 more

Nathalie told me last week that she thought Benjamin was entering a 1-new-word-per-day phase. I haven't blogged that claim because I hadn't observed it for myself, and I've definitely noticed days that didn't seem to advance his vocabulary. But it's been almost 10 days since I last blogged his new words, and darned if he doesn't have 10 new words:

76. pluie ("rain")
77. tartine (toast)
78. house (pronounced "ash")
79. patate (potato)
80. Sam (pronounced "Sa!" and referring to Samantha Fay Capehart)
81. music
82. tasse (cup)
83. choo choo
84. penguin
85. moto (motorcycle)

I'm especially excited by the word "music" because I first heard him saying it in combination with "more": more music was his first ASL "sentence" and now it's one of his early spoken-word combinations, as well.

Tasse was also exciting because I was showing him a picture book in his bath (a vinyl, waterproof picture book) and telling him the names of the different pictures. After I showed him a picture of a cup and said "cup," he pointed to the same picture and said tasse.

Me: "Honey! Does Benjamin say the word 'tasse' yet?"

Nathalie: Tasse? No, I don't think so!

I've also been trying to get him to say "train" for a while, but he wouldn't take to it. Then last night while we looked at a different picture book, I said "choo choo train" and he said "choo choo!"

We don't count something as a new word when he's just repeating what we've said, but I had the distinct impression he was saying "choo choo" to refer to the photograph of a train, so I reached for a box of toys and took out a wooden train set his Mamie gave him for his birthday.

"Benjamin, what's this?"

"Choo choo!"

I called his mother in to hear it. "Tell your mother what this is."

"Choo choo!"

Excellent.

- papa

P.S. Papa forgot to mention "bubble bath"—said with great enthusiasm. He seems to find it fun to say.

-maman