"Whuhs Dis, Daddy?"

Jack is quite chatty, and inquisitive, and it's hilarious. So here's the talking-themed blog.

SUPERHEROES

I have this T-shirt that has images of Marvel Comics' "Avengers" on the front - The Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Giant Man, and the Wasp. The original team, of course, because I'm old school. Anyway. Jack was kind of intrigued by it when he was a baby - he'd pull at it and grab it, and I used to not understand it until gradually I figured out he was trying to grab the figures on the shirt.

I don't wear it a lot, but I wore it yesterday, and Jack, sitting on my lap, started pointing at all the figures. "Whuhs dis, Daddy?" He asked, pointing at the Hulk. "That's the Hulk," I said. "He's a cartoon character, like the Backyardigans." "Whuhs dis, Daddy?" He points at another character. "That's Iron Man." "Whuhs dis, Daddy?" "That's Giant Man." And so on until we've run through all five characters. But Jack's not done. "Whuhs dis, Daddy?" "Um...that's the Hulk again." "Whuhs dis Daddy?" "That's Iron Ma--" (Before I can finish answering) "Whuhs dis Daddy?" "That's Giant--" "Whuhs dis....."

This goes on until we've run through all the characters 3 or 4 times. Apparently satisfied, he moves on to something else, but about 10 minutes later, he's at my side pointing at my shirt. "Whuhs dis, Daddy?" "That's the Hulk, Jack." "Tha Hulk," he says. "Whuhs dis?" "That's Iron Man." Jack says, "Ion Man." Then we go through all the characters, some whose names he pronounces, some about whom he says "Whuhs dis?"

So basically, I will probably wear the shirt more often from now on.

PUMPKINS

I carved our pumpkin last night. Jack was fascinated. At first he wanted to put the nose piece back in where I'd cut it out of ("Back on! Back on!"). Then he figured it out (once I lit it up), and he began saying "big pumpkin....pumpkin lights...BIG pumpkin..." Later, he moved the similarly sized plastic pumpkin with the classic black triangle eyes and nose (used to carry Halloween candy around) over next to the carved pumpkin. "Friends," he said. "Friends." He nodded approvingly at his work.

SINGING

Jack sings a couple of TV show theme songs. (We only let him watch a couple, honest, and they're great. The Backyardigans, by far the best kids show on TV, and Wonder Pets. That one he started watching with his Grandma, but I admit it's kind of charming, and it's all about teamwork and stuff...whatever. The animals are cute too.) "Baccckkkk wif your friends ... the Back. Yard. Agains!" and "Wonder Pets, Wonder Pets, OnnOURway! Wonder Pets, Wonder Pets, save thuh day!" He sings Edelweiss with me when I put him to bed, and he also sings, sometimes, "Twinkle twinkle Litt-uhl Star!"

TRAINS

Jack plays with his trains, which are from the "Thomas the Tank Engine" series. As far as I know he's never seen the show. But they all have names, and he can recite them (he has one of the books which we read together). "Thom-as....Top-pam...Hat...Har-vey....Thom-as...."

LAUGHING

I like to lift Jack up and hold him (carefully!) upside down. He screams with laughter. As I ease him down, he says "Das fonneeee! Das fonneeee!" And laughs and laughs.

RELATIVES

Jack picks up the phone and says "Eekan!" (Uncle Ian.) "Aunt Taffy!" (Aunt Cathy.) There's a knock at his door and he says "Damma!" (Grandma.) Or "Dampa!" (Grandpa.) When he comes down from a nap and somebody who was here when he went to sleep is gone, it's "Where Mommy go?" or "Where Damma go?" Sometimes he wakes up and just chants: "Linsey tacey ranna (Lyndsay, Stacey, Reanna) ... Linsey tacey ranna ... "

DANCING

He likes to dance, a kind of shuffling, stomping, spinning around dance that I dearly hope he just came to naturally, as opposed to learning from watching one of us stumble around. I hope. Still, it's hilarious to watch him do it. And always smiling.

And there's more, but I can't think of it right now. Which is a shame.

You know why I have to write all this stuff down? Because I forget it. For everything I write down here within a day or two after it happens, there are probably a dozen or more things that I forget.

I just hope that I remember most of it, because it's too good not to. I don't ever want to forget it. I know I'll lose some, but if I can always remember him putting that plastic pumpkin next to the glowing carved pumpkin and saying "Friends," that'll be something.