Jonathan's Vocabulary

Considering that Jonathan is 1 year and 9 months old, one might say that the fact that he hardly speaks coherent words is something to worry about. I say he compensates so well with body language that he manges to explain exactly what he wants most of the time, thus he need not bother to learn to talk...

Maybe the fact that we intend to enter him into a new group in the kindergarten in September, in which older children are present will help speed up his talking, after all until now he was the oldest in a group that is formed from a mixture of babies and toddlers.

My husband is especially frustrated, because the little that Jonathan does say is in Hebrew. This is of course understandable when one looks at the odds. Kindergarten and family meetings are all in Hebrew, as is the noise in the street, as well as the many DVD's that Jonathan possesses and watched daily (a true TV junky from the start...). German is spoken only at home and only if daddy is around. The strongest argument for Hebrew is probably that it is the language that mommy speaks...when I am with Jonathan alone and my husband is not there, then I speak Hebrew. Even my husband speaks Hebrew with Jonathan sometimes – to practice the little he knows of the language.

So what can he say?
His first clear word was “Lo” which means “no” is Hebrew. A very powerful word and the means the boy has to show resistance and explain what he wants (or not, for that matter). The word is repeated, sometimes in an angry like tone to stress that he really is against what is going on...and recently he has added the finger gesture of moving the finger from side to side as a sign for “no” - a gesture that every Israeli knows...
He points his finger to a certain direction and then says “atze” a sound that is close the the word “this” in Hebrew. Jonathan can get quite a few things done by simply pointing... mommy brings him books, allows him to press the button to run the DVD etc...
“book” is the last syllable of the Hebrew word for bottle.
“bee” is the second syllable of “dubi” which means teddy bear – Jonathan has a favorite cuddling teddy, that he sleeps with and liked to carry with him about the house.
“or” means light, he uses it to ask to turn on the light himself or that his room be lighter up in the morning.
He says “se” and taps a chair – to signal that he wishes me to sit (on the particular chair tapped) the “se” sound connect well to the word “shev” which means “sit” in Hebrew and which he has heard mommy say often enough (he must sit to have his shoes put on every morning before leaving the house).
Waving his hand from side to side and saying “baba” means goodbye (baba is the closes t he gets to bye bye at this time).
A similar gesture of opening and closing his fingers and saying “bobo” has a total different meaning, it means to come with him. He walks in the desired direction as he calls for one to follow him. “bo” means come in Hebrew. “bobo” is a repetition, and Jonathan will continue to repeat himself until you indeed follow him where he want to go. Lately he has improved this particular word and he says “boi” which is the female form of “come” in Hebrew (very fitting to use the female form when one addresses one's mother, no?) and sometimes he even says “boi hena”, which means “come here”.
Another surprising choice of word is “maim, which means water. He will use it either to ask for a drink, or when in the bath tub, as he enjoys splashing around and pouring water from one cup to another.

A special place in his vocabulary belongs to animals. He has picked up certain animal sounds and has gotten very good at making them whenever he sees a relevant image. His favorite books now are animal books. He looks at the book, points at a picture, makes a sound and gets compliments from every adult around him! No wonder animal sounds are his hobby! “moo” is the most popular (he also has a blanket with a cow on it...) as he tends to confuse almost all large animals with cows. A monkey that goes “uh uh uh” is also a favorite. A dog barks “oh oh” and sometimes sounds like the monkey, Jonathan is not yet so strong on his H (in Hebrew a dog barks “Hav Hav”, in German it's “Wau Wau” - one never gives this kind of thing much thought unless one is married to someone who grew up somewhere else...). He knows that horses go “hihihi” and make clicking sounds when walking, he knows that zebras also go “hihihi” but does not associate the clinking sound with them...
he knows donkeys go “i-aah” but tends to confuse them with cows. He does not confuse the sheep's “meeee” with the cow's “mooo” but the cat's “miaoow” is a bit confused with the cow sound. He knows a duck goes “ga ga” but a hen goes “guk guk”.

Screaming and throwing a tantrum is also becoming a habit unfortunately. This is Jonathan ways to show that he is not satisfied with the goings of his world. I suppose some of the tantrums are a result of frustration in his ability to express himself, but others are just plain tantrums, a part of the almost two year old toddlers vocabulary and a source of pain for his parents. Let us hope that when he learns to speak the tantrums will lessen.

Another words he likes to use is “wow” to show enthusiasm. If he likes something or sees something new, he will say “wow” with true enjoyment.
He has also recently started saying “puwa” when he wants me to open something for him. The sound resembles the end of the Hebrew word that means “to open”. He also says “gur” which is the last syllable of the Hebrew word for closed. He will use it to ask me to close something. Strangely enough he usually catches onto the last syllables of words, but perhaps this is so because in Hebrew pronunciation the last syllable is the one most emphasized in 90% of the words.

He also imitates sounds he hears. He can sing notes almost to perfection and has some regular tunes he sings, he repeats words from his DVD and his toys. The most recent one is the words “doctor” that he repeated after hearing it spoken form a start trek figurine his daddy got at a Burger King shop (they come with the child meal)...

A light at the end of the tunnel has recently showed itself for my husband, when Jonathan started reacting the his first German work. “kuesschen” means kiss. Daddy asks for a kiss in German and gets one! Jonathan is generally a true Casanova! A professional flirt from birth. He has a few of the girls in kindergarten totally nuts about him, he can choose with which little girl to dance and which little girl to hug and kiss. Today he decided to “French kiss” a new candidate, daddy saw it and thought it was just so sweet when the two toddlers hugged and kissed. And with this positive note, I end today's entry.