Talkin' in the new year

As a reward for my incredible solo Daddying of the last month and a half, I was given some bachelor shore leave for new year's eve and spent it up at the cabin skiing with Holly and Rob. When I left, Finn was talking up a storm - flexing his Frankensteinian pronunciation - but his conversations were all limited to just a couple of words thrown together, like "Call Layla" (as you can see him doing to the right) or "Elmo Big Bird" (repeated every 15 seconds; what was I saying about wanting a child that watches TV?).

And so it was with great surprise (and even greater hangover) that I returned from the trip over the weekend to find Finn had really stepped up his talking game. He continues to point out every car in the universe, he tries really hard to count past two and he still works diligently at identifying the colors that aren't yellow, but to all of this he has now added the following complete sentences:

• "It's milk time!" (see also: "It's Taco Time®!", "It's Mi-Mi (binky) time!" and "It's poop time!")
• "Twinkle twinkle little star" (sung; see also any of the other weird yoga songs that Kitty makes him listen to that he also appears to know the words to)
• "I drive car" (transition into screaming meltdown when removed from said car, but that's a story for another time)
• And of course now: "Watch Elmo Big Bird / Cars / Yo Gabba / baseball"

It's the last one that's driving me craziest, of course. Doesn't he realize that we CAN'T watch baseball?! He's so cruel.

But in the end, my favorite new phrase would have to come down to one of the following:

• "I love you, Daddy"
• "Daddy farted" (which is what I believe he's explaining to Layla above)

I know. It's a toss-up. I love them both equally, as they're both equally true.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm engaged in a wicked game of chicken with our neighbors to see which is going to be the last house in the neighborhood to take down their Christmas lights. And these guys are good; I think they've had their lights on continuously since 1987. I may be overmatched.