Hi, Sta ... tue

• thank you
• one, two, three
• ready, set, go!
• eat
• sip
• snack (which actually involves a tongue click at the beginning of the word, making me think of African tribal languages)
• cat
• poop
• up
• down
• on
• off
• stop!
• bye-bye
• no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no
• banana (which is hard to distinguish from "Nana," especially when she's visiting)
• bottle
• choo-choo
• there it is!
• ta-da!
• good (as in, "How was your day, Noah?" "Good!")
• Look!
• I love you

And then there's my favorite, the thing that sounds absolutely adorable when he says it in his baby voice:

"Hi, Statue!" ("statue" is two distinct sounds, always separated by a pause, so it's more like "hi sta ... tue.")

We drive by the mini Statue of Liberty on the Susquehanna River north of Harrisburg often, and every time we go by, Sam and I say, "Hi, Statue!" and wave. Noah finally caught on to what we were doing, so now he calls anything standing still a statue.

During our recent home-wreckage project, Noah was home one day. As we were trying to rip up carpet and diagnose an electrical problem, Noah was running around getting into everything he wasn't supposed to be touching.

At one point, he climbed up the two-step plastic stepstool we have, balanced himself with one hand on the nearby wall, stood as still as his little body could and said, "Mommy -- hi, Sta ... tue!"

So adorable.

I smothered him in kisses. Funny how that statue sure could wiggle then.