Words, words, words

I'm beginning to feel a lot like Annie Sullivan around here, as Micah's thirst for language magnifies every day. Pretty much from sun up to sun down, we get quizzed with the words "whas dhat?" He can't always repeat what we say, and there are some very cute alternatives. For example, "shoes" is just "shzzz" and "cat" is "ow" (for meow). Anything round is "apple," which also seems to be a general conversational word, on the order of "how are you doing?" or "I'm in the kitchen." He can now ask to go "up" very clearly, and is very emphatic when he's "ah dun" with a meal. He has his first verb this week, "dance," which is also one of his favorite activities. There are still a lot of words that he's saying that don't mean anything to us, like "ghush."
He's definitely understanding a lot of what we say, and when we say "time for school" or "time for a bath," he knows to grab a hand and toddle in the right direction. He can point to several body parts, including eyes, ears, mouth, hair, and tummy, and just today said "eyes," which sounds a lot like another frequent demand we hear, "ice" (which we give him in restaurants to keep him busy.) It is amazing to see all the language developing, and you never know where a new word will turn up. One day he said "elephant" quite clearly, but hasn't repeated it again; he says "owl" quite a lot too -- we think they may have talked about owls a lot at school during halloween. And this week we had the biggest surprise -- he quite clearly is identifying the Sesame Street character "Elmo" by name despite the fact that we he doesn't watch TV at all at home, and I don't think they watch it at school.
We're looking forward to a visit from my sister and her family this week, and it will be wonderful to have all 5 of my sisters' and my children together for the first time. I think my niece and nephew will be quite surprised that "baby Micah" isn't quite a baby anymore, tho' I hope they'll be less interested in carrying him around like a doll than his cousins who live locally. As the youngest, Micah will have to learn to stand up for himself quickly, but he also seems to be everyone's pet.
Wishing all of my friends around the world a very joyous holiday season!