Using his words

Biscuit's vocabulary is growing every day. But he still uses his first and favorite words ... a lot.

Dada, Mama, ball, car, baby, dog and duck. We hear those words about 85 times each day.

When Biscuit and I go to Target together, we have a routine. I park beside a buggy return because it's easy to return the buggy when we come out. Then I take Biscuit out of his car seat, and we head across the parking lot.

"You have to hold my hand when we walk in the parking lot," I tell Biscuit. So he wraps his little hand around my finger, and we head to the store.

Target has these big, red balls out in front of the store. I don't think they have a purpose, except for decoration. On each trip, Biscuit has to touch no less than three of those balls. And of course, he has to announce to everyone who passes, "Ball. Ball. Ball."

Yesterday, he tried something new. He walked up to one of the balls and kicked it. Then he staggered back and said, "Ow." I didn't even know that he knew what "ow" meant.

Once we get into the store, we get a buggy and start our shopping. As we pass the photo department, Biscuit says, "Dog. Baby. Ball. Dog. Baby. Ball." On the back wall of the photo department, there are pictures of a dog with a ball and a father and a baby. Then he waves to the workers at the service desk. Sometimes they wave back. Sometimes they don't. He doesn't really care.

As we go through the store, he announces every baby he sees, whether it's a real baby, or a picture somewhere, or on a box or on a store sign. He also announces every ball, car and dog he sees. Oh yeah, he's recently added cats to his repertoire. Although, he pronounces it sorta like cot.

As we go through the baby section (and we ALWAYS go through the baby section), he points to diapers, sippy cups and a few other items and says, "Mine. Mine." He knows that those are things we have at home for him.

The only problem I usually have with him is if we pass anything that he likes to eat. It doesn't matter if it's crackers or his brand of juice or heaven forbid "nananas," he thinks he's supposed to have some ... right then. I can usually distract him with a snack from my pocketbook or by showing him something cool in the store.

When it's time to check out, I try to wait around until there's a short line. The boy, much like me, doesn't have much patience when it comes to waiting for things.

Then the conversations start with the cashier. "Hey. Hey. Hey." to start out. Then he'll name anything in our buggy that he can say, "Shoes. Nananas. Mine."

Then he starts with the goodbyes. "Bye" to the cashier, complete with a wave. Then "bye" to everybody we pass between the cash register and the car.

And of course, he has to point and name every car and truck in the parking lot.

It's amazing to watch my little man grow. He's turning into his own little person. And if my little boy continues to like shopping as much as my big boy does, I'll be one lucky mama.