Rian dictionary

Ever since Rian started speaking, we've made a conscious effort to not talk in "baby talk", so Rian picked up language without any errors in speech or "bobda bolna". At almost three, he can have a conversation with the doctor and the nurse on his own. He does have trouble pronouncing R and L still, but he works on it constantly.

Here and there though, Rian has added his own words to our dictionary. Some have come and gone already, just wanted to pen down some memories and current favorites:

Nunoon: this was Rian's word for "red"

Mack: this is Rian's word for "truck", from the character Mack from the movie Cars. "Nunoon Mack" is his childhood obsession.

Kachi Pachi: This is his latest addition, he says this means "head". If we ask him "what grows on top of kachi pachi, he says: hair". Pretty consistent, this one.

Breems: This is from our trip to Yosemite NP. Breems was Rian's word for waterfalls. He knows they are waterfalls, but makes up a word, tells Daddy about it, and then continues to call them Breems throughout the two days, how cute :-)

School Meena: This has been Rian's word for "food" at school since day 1. Even though he can identify and tell us what he ate now, his first response to the question "what did you eat in school today?" is "school meena".

Entire songs: Rian knew many nursery rhymes before going to school, but now he has learnt to sign them in tune from school. He has two songs that he has made complete versions of his own. For the "ants go marching one by one", he says:

Aiku gaiki kangal gang kuga kuga
He aiku gaiki kangal gang kuga kuga
He aiku gaiki aiku gaiki...

He says it exactly like this every single time :-) It's amazing! Of course he knows the original song too in its entirety. When I went to Rian's school ending party a week back, I found out Rian sings songs loudly along with the rest of the children in his class, nice!