Talker

Here are a few of the latest additions to Drew's vocabulary:

crooked
wind chimes
water tower
vestibule*
fart

Just a year ago, when Drew had yet to utter a single "mama" (not that he couldn't say "Debbie," who took care of him every day when I was at work), I couldn't imagine him talking.
But once he started, he literally exploded with language. The books say that at one point toddlers add something like 10-50 words a day to their vocabulary, which seems impossible, but if you don't know any words I guess there's a lot to learn.
I can't tell you where he even picks half of his words up - not that I mind him saying "Oh Man!" when he drops something instead of "f**k," but he only has to hear something once and it's in the repertoire. Sometimes it's clear the word came from a teaching moment, where his father or I lovingly explained the difference between "spiders" and "ants" while he watched with wonder as the latter marched across the kitchen windowsill, through the cat's food and onto our counter tops where they were apparently having their annual convention. But more often than not, the random words used in the appropriate context will take me by surprise, and I will suddenly realize why every parent thinks, at least once, that their child is a mad genius.

*Drew likes to lock himself in the short back hallway and close all the doors to create a little echo chamber, and I call the game "vestibule."