50 Words a day!

Recently someone axed me about our son. I took this as an invitation to do something that all fathers want to do...brag on their chillun's.

Ezra Jude Black is almost 19 months young. He has one fur brother and one fur-less brother on the way. Lord willing, the new Black boy will be birthed in February. Ezra is excited and often points to Kirsten's belly and says "beebee." He is working on the pronunciation of his brother's name. He doesn't quite have the consonants down yet but he is trying. I have heard that around 18 months children are able to learn 50 new words a day. I don't think this means they are able to say 50 new words a day. I think it means that they begin to understand about 50 words a day. For instance, when I ask Ezra if he wants to look for a squirrel he instantly runs to our front window in search of the bushy-tailed varmint. He is not able to say 'squirrel' but he knows the words. Kirsten has had to cut back on the amount of cursing she throws around on a daily basis. Other than the sailing part, she curses just like a drunken sailor.


Words Ezra tries to pronounce:

1. ball - 'bow'
2. mittens - 'meece'
3. mommy - 'mommy'
4. daddy - 'dadda'
5. papa - 'baba'
6. grammy - 'meemee'
7. grandpa - 'baba'
8. grandma - 'baba'
9. Amy - 'mayme'
10. Rob - 'raa'
11. Max - 'maa'
12. Clive - 'dowg'
13. book - 'buu'
14. taco - 'dado'
15. cup - 'pu'
16. juice - 'cheez'
17. more - 'mo'
18. please - 'peesh'
19. sticker - 'deeda'
20. stinky - 'deedee'
21. bible - 'ba-bo'
22. bubbles - 'bu-bo'
23. snow - 'naow'
24. blanket - 'beebeez'
25. spoon - 'poo'
26. eat - 'ee-ee'
27. night - 'ni-ni'
28. beanbag - 'be-be'
29. mall - 'mawo'
30. hat - 'aah'
31. slippers - 'bzzz'
32. oatmeal - 'o-me'
33. snack - 'naa'
34. Elmo - 'melmo'
35. bath - 'baa'
36. milk - 'mil'
37. again - 'gen'
38. umm - 'ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm'
39. hot - 'ah ah'
40. pants - 'pass'
41. socks - 'sa'
42. boots - 'boos'
43. amen - 'ahmeen'
44. color - 'dahdo'

Ezra loves to look at books and play with balls. This has endeared him to Clive. They run around chasing balls all over the house. The ball graveyard is underneath our couch. This is where the fun stops. Yesterday we bought 20 raquet balls at Target for $5. We took them home and dumped them in the middle of the front room floor. Clive had a nervous breakdown. He wasn't sure which ball to chase first. Ezra picked up most of them and put them in a trick-or-treat jack-o-lantern basket. He walks around with the basket collecting balls. This morning when Ezra awoke he pointed to the basket from his crib and said - "bow."

Kirsten is a wonderful mother to our boy. She is very patient. She reads the same books over and over. She retrieves many balls from the couch graveyard. I am so thankful that God has allowed us to have her at home with Ezra and brother-on-the-way. We value the time that they have together.Ezra's favorite past-times are watching squirrels, chasing Clive with a cooking pan and wooden spoon, coloring, reading his bible, looking at dogs at the pet store and walks on the beach (I threw that last one in there for fun).

We are not sure why he has thin blond hair. The above picture shows how crazy his blond hair can be especially after sleeping on his head through the night.I guess when I think about it - he is our joy. He is the thing that gets us up in the morning - both physically and emotionally. He is a great little boy. Someday maybe you will meet him in person. I am sure he would love to add your name to his vocabulary.

If you would like to see more pictures of the boy click here!