Surprising words

Every day Isaac learns how to say more words. Many of them are to be expected, either because they are words he hears every day or because they are words that we have purposefully taught him. For example, it was cute but not unexpected when he said pineapple and backhoe, since he really likes both of those things and we talked about them frequently. In another case, it's a little strange that he says buckle, but because it is a funny-sounding word we repeated it after him a lot, so he learned it as a sort of joke. Either way, he usually starts off by echoing a word he likes, then practicing until he gets it right, thereby keeping us somewhat aware of his ever-increasing vocabulary.

Some words, however, come as surprises. They spring from his lips complete and fully grown (like Athena), without prompting or practice, leaving one to wonder exactly how he learned them -- and, sometimes, why did he care enough to learn them in the first place?

Recent words in this category include:

Hook -- As we got our coats after Kindergym today, Isaac pointed the hooks out to me. Who knew he was interested in hanging things up? According to him it is also, however, the thing that cranes use to pick stuff up, so maybe that increased its prestige.

Blue -- I heard him say this to himself the other day as he turned the DVD player on and off, and sure enough, when I took a closer look I saw that the little light on it is blue. Who told him that? He also knows how to say yellow, although if you ask him what color something is, he always answers either blue or yellow, so I don't think he actually knows what the colors are.

Peel -- It's not the important part of a banana or an orange, but it seems to have made an impression on Isaac anyway. Although he's never personally peeled any fruit, we've told him many times, "No, you can't eat that yet! It has the peel on it!"

L -- We haven't tried to teach Isaac his letters (or his colors, for that matter), but he does seem to recognize this one. Why? Who knows. Over the last month or two he has increasingly noticed words in his books, so maybe he's ready to talk about letters.

Hurry up! -- This is the phrase we use to tell the dog it's time to relieve himself, and although no one has ever taught it to Isaac, he must have heard us say it a hundred times. Today he said it for the first time, and he used it in context, as we let the dog out, with perfect enunciation (unlike several of the other more useful commands he tries to give the dog, like "Drop it").

I think there will be more frequent surprises as his ability to correctly pronounce words grows -- if he doesn't need a lengthy practice period, he can just bust out new words left and right. Also, he's beginning to fill in the ends of words he already knew, fleshing out the one-syllable vowel stems with careful consonant blends. Although sometimes he completes his words so elaborately that he adds extra sounds -- ball is pronounced bowel, on is onna, owl is owl-ell.