Sound Check

Erin and I are slow to claim that our child talks, but we feel comfortable saying that Joseph indisputably says the following words as an 18-month old:

tzat? (what's that?)
Joseph says this dozens, if not hundreds, of times everyday. He points at anything, and sometimes nothing, and repeats "Tzat? Tzat?" until you respond. We try to do it back to him, but he just points at something else and asks, "Tzat?"

clock
For some reason this was one of his first words. He always liked climbing on our bed and pulling the alarm clock off the nightstand. Last month, I had a 48-hour period where the clock didn't need resetting.

bubble
Blowing bubbles on the balcony is one of our favorite pastimes

golf ball
I've never been prouder

golf club
He says this when he plays with his plastic golf clubs. He will also point at my computer and say this because the wallpaper is the picture from his first birthday where he's holding his golf club. Whenever he finds a golf magazine or sees golf on tv he also announces this.

The other week we were driving past a golf course where he saw some men playing golf and he yelled it out from the backseat.

He also says this whenever he sees my clubs, which of late have spent way too much time in the garage.

Nye-Nye ("Night, Night")
He says this when we put him down to sleep in his crib. Sometimes he repeats it until we leave the room and close the door. He also says it to toys when he lays them down to sleep. It's really sweet to watch him because he kisses his toys and then gently puts them down and waves goodbye as he says "nigh, nigh."

hot
Joseph points at the stove, the microwave, anything that came out of the stove or microwave, candles, and the heater and says this.

Sometimes he'll point at random foods (e.g., applesauce, cereal) on his tray and say "hot," so "hot" also apparently means "food" regardless of its temperature. He'll also try to tell us that he wants food by saying "hot."

no
This comes up in response to "Should I turn on the vacuum?" as well as in response to a lot of other questions or suggestions.

Joseph will also point at things he wants but doesn't have and say "no," as in "I don't have that. No this is not what should be going on."

When he's about to do something he shouldn't (such as touch electrical outlets) he'll also say "no. no." and then do it.

mom/dad
He now identifies his parents by name. But when he was little his sad noise was "ma, ma, ma" and his excited/happy noise was "da da da." I tried to encourage these associations as much as possible.

more
One night, I had him saying "mo plee" (more please), but I think he just thought that meant "give me more pasta" so he doesn't pull that one out anymore.

foo-BALL!!!!!
He yells this when he sees football on television. I love my son

"la la la"
Recently Joseph has added "La La La" as well. This sound has at least two meanings depending on the context and Joseph's tone.

Whenever a helicopter flies overhead he points to the sky and says rhythmically "La La La," which is the sound that helicopter blades make. He'll also do this sometimes when airplanes fly overhead, but not always.

"La La la" said in a higher pitched sing-song voice is code for "Elmo." Joseph discovered Elmo sometime during the last month and gets really excited whenever he sees him. Elmo has a theme song (as we all should) where he starts off singing "la la la la." Joseph's "la la's" aren't to any particular tune (sort of like his dad's singing).

Misc.
Our pediatrician also claims that animal sounds are words as well, so in that case we've got a menagerie of additional words.

He has a word for "closet" that sometimes sounds like "quack" and other times sounds like "clock." He says it consistently, but Joseph struggles with the "cl" sound for some reason in this word.

Joseph says "hi" when we say "hi" to him, but he just thinks that's a fun noise game we play at random times.