Lijah talk
Lijah likes to sing. One of his favorite tunes is the following: "Dah dih, dah day... dah dih, dah day dah dah yoh nah may!" I'm sure those syllables are so recognizable they need no explanation, but for those of you not familiar with the song I'll tell you that it's a Christian classic beloved of young people, "This Is the Day That the Lord Has Made" (I should note for the record that his pitch and rhythm are rather better than his pronunciation).
Besides the singing, he's also talking up a storm. For the past couple months people who haven't seen him for a while have been remarking on how much more he says now—not that they can understand him at all. He isn't at all clear when he speaks, to the point that "Whole Foods" and "boots off!" sound enough the same that the rest of us had a difference of opinion about what he meant earlier today (admittedly we were in the car so it was hard to hear). Altering—"personalizing"—so many sounds isn't a huge problem when you're just saying a handful of words, but when you're trying to express complex thoughts like our little almost-two-year-old, things get tricky.
Still, we love to hear him talk. Now that he's capable of advanced communication I can sometimes talk him out of his toddler frustration fury; and even when I can't, his voice and speaking mannerisms are awful cute. I just wish I could end this post with a video of him saying "no no no..." in his smiling, head-shaking fashion—but the third kid just doesn't get the video time he deserves. I guess I'll just have to remember it.