Did you know that dinosaurs aren’t growling, but rather asking for a cookie?

JJ has been babbling for quite some time. He knows certain words: Mama, Dada, cup, Orley, Gran, Grandaddy, cottage cheese, bagel, book, Maribeth, car, Freddies, park, water, bath, upstairs, downstairs, tv, Uncle Jack, notforJJ!, eat, darts, dance!, twirl!, and no among others. Whether he chooses to acknowledge that he knows and understands is another thing.

He’s practicing saying words. For some time he’s made the KEYKEY noise for kitty, puppy, or fishy. DAH! is yes while DAP! is no: don’t confuse them, lest the wrath be awoken. Mmmmmamamama usually means “I want,” and hagh (spoken more as a whisper) is “hello,” which tends to be his greeting in the morning after waking up: he howls to let me know that his jigginess has awoken and requests extraction from enemy territory, and then he softly says “hagh” like he hadn’t been yowling to the high heavens. Ah, me.

But here’s the catch. While he does make specific noises that mean certain words, I have a fear for what his first word will be. The other day I was getting something out of a cupboard, and all of a sudden he started making these “ccccaaghghh” noises. I thought he was testing out his vocal cords or maybe caught a Listerine commercial, but no: he kept saying “cccccaaaaghghghgh” over and over and motioning very pointedly to the cupboard where . . . . his cccaaaughghookies are kept. Cookie. His first word is going to be cookie. At least it might be “Earth’s Best Organic Letter of the Day cookie” – but nevertheless, cookie. Sigh.

And then today, while a Certain Someone was throwing a tantrum in his cart at Target (he does NOT have a red cart romance), I looked around for something to distract him (ah, like mother, like daughter). We were by the blessed dollar section, and lo and behold, I found a dinosaur. I loves dinosaurs; Uncle Bubba used to play with them all the time, and I just love hearing the little “growl”s and “raaar”s as little people use them to wipe out Little People villages (preparation for World of Warcraft, methinks). Hubby, not so much a prehistoric fan, so I take any opportunity for JJ to get his Jurassic on.

The dinosaur went in. The howling ceased. And then all of a sudden, he started making noises for the dinosaur. “Cccccaaaghghgh” – over and over and over. Apparently dinosaurs eat cookies, or perhaps they are demanding of cookies. I never knew.

JJ Jawings