As he nears two-and-a-half, Elliot is increasingly verbal. He can answer simple questions about his day. He can identify the colors of objects -- in both English and Spanish. He has an amazing ability to memorize and then recite many of his books.
But, despite all the words that now comprise his vocabulary, one of the simplest is his favorite. This particular word is short, to-the-point and almost identical in both English and Spanish. That's right...you guessed it: no!
Perhaps because he uses (and overuses) the word so frequently, Elliot has come up with a variety of"nos."
There's the annoyed "no" when I ask him to do something he just doesn't feel like doing, like filling in the missing words in a story I'm reading to him. There's the stridently loud "no" he uses -- usually accompanied by getting on the floor and refusing to move -- when he's really upset about something. Of course, this typically occurs in public, as it did this morning when he didn't want to leave the museum (the one that he said "no, no, no" about going to in the first place).
Perhaps my least favorite of Elliot's "nos" is the "recurring no," where he somehow manages to say no-no-no many times in a row -- for up to half an hour at a time. Sometimes, it goes longer, but these instances are usually punctuated by periods of intense crying.
Being a toddler can be difficult, at least from what I've observed. You don't have a lot of say in how your day goes, and you sometimes can't express why you "no like it."
So, I don't expect the "nos" to stop anytime soon. Although, from what I've heard, one day "no" will be replaced by an equally annoying mantra: "I don't know."
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