our little chatter box

Bennett's jabbering seems to have increased exponentially over the last month. Sometimes we understand it. He seems to always understand it. Right now, for example, he is walking around the playroom with Paul's putter saying "putt putt, putt putt" and hitting golf balls across the floor. (Paul is practicing his putting.) Could this be a foreshadowing of things to come for Bennett? Is he a budding golfer? Only time will tell, although when I was pregnant with Bennett, I kept telling Paul that I really thought he'd love golf like his dad. (Anderson prefers basketball and football right now.)

Bennett just paused for a moment to go over to the red tractor Anderson had when he was Bennett's age and said, "tat-tar". Now, Anderson has entered the playroom and is shooting basketball, so he is approaching Anderson saying, "ba-ball, ba-ball" with his hands extended towards his brother, which is his way of asking for his turn to take a shot.

Today, I believe Bennett said his first intelligible phrase. I was loading the back of the van with groceries. He was already buckled into his seat and was playing with his "baboon" (balloon). Suddenly, I heard a loud pop, so I walked around the van and opened the door where he was seated, just to make sure he had not bitten the balloon and had remnants in his mouth. As soon as the door slid open, he looked at me with a puzzled look and a balloon string in his hand and said, "it boke" (it broke). Too cute!

I also want to add that he seems to think that my dad's name is "Pa Pa". He goes by Granddaddy by the other grandsons, although there have been various forms of this name over the years by toddlers who could not speak clearly. For Anderson, he was Dan-da; For Jackson, he was "Waaa Waaa" (yeah, like a whining baby sound....my personal favorite); And for Andrew, he was "Gaga". Anyway, every time we drive past my parent's home, Bennett starts pointing at the house and saying "Pa Pa".

Although we understand more and more of Bennett's vocabulary, most of the time he says things like "bla la bu ba ta tee". Anyone fluent in toddler-speak, feel free to send me the interpretation.