Verbal Skillz

Every day, Oliver amazes us with how much he understands and how much he can say. There was just too much to share on this topic to be included in the "Milestones" posting, so I'm doing it seperately. Thursday, for example, he was saying Heike perfectly (although he's a bit confused that I can be both Heike AND Mommy).

• He can identify lots of body parts including eyese, nose, mouth, ears, head, toes, elbow (thanks to Tante Nicole), arm, and his fave, penis. I used to joke that it was his peschnik, but he has gotten better at saying it. Eyes, nose, mouth, ears he can do in german too.
• Thanks to our stay-cation friends, Oliver now consistently says "Thank you!" everytime you give him food. Lately, he says "thank you welcome" which is just adorable. Katharina is trying really hard to get him to say "Bitte" instead of "Please" but that is still a work in progress.
• When he wants more of something and we don't act fast enough, he asks for "Mehr?" -- cute that he switches languages in an attempt to communicate his needs better.
• He just started using a word for his Schnulli (pacifier), but he calls it a Schulli.
• He uses "Up" when he means "Help" which at times is a bit confusing.
• The "all done" sign is the only piece of sign language that has stuck and he uses it to tell us when he doesn't like the song we are playing, the video we are watching, the game we are playing, the food we are offering him, or even when he doesn't like the animal we are standing in front of at the zoo -- its pretty funny.
• As the recent video showed, Olivers the sounds that dogs, cats, monkeys, and lions make. He is also always informing us when he hears a bus outside (we are a stone's throw from a bus stop) and he loves to go "beep beep" when he hears a car or taxi.
• Although Sesame Street is being phased out for Thomas, Oliver can identify Elmo, Groover, Cookie Monster and Ernie (no love for Bert).
• He knows words/pieces of all kinds of music. On Thursday, he surprised me by knowing pieces of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and he can sing part of the ABCs - he sings HIJ, QRS, and "Now I know" - its pretty funny to hear him only chime in then. (Maybe I will post a video, but it includes a lot of tone-deaf Heike). For some time now, Oliver can say the first line of a German nursery rhyme "Backe Backe Kuchen" and likes to sing E-I-E-O (from Old McDonald). He can also follow the movements to some of the songs from music class.