Oink, Moo, Meow by Sterling Publishing Co.

Oink, Moo, Meow by Sterling Publishing Co.

Rating: 4 stars

Here's a little book for little guys and girls.  Kiefer is nearly 20 months old and doing his best to talk.  He can say "blue" and "uh-oh" and "da-da" and a handful of other words.  The rest of his emotions, opinions, and desires he grunts.  "Ugh.  Ugh.  Ugh!!"  (Lorelei often translates: "Mommy, that means yes."  Um, thanks.)

I'm not going to lie: This is not my favorite phase.

To shorten it as much as I can, to do as much as I can to encourage the word-building to happen in a matter of months rather than years, I am providing books like Oink, Moo, Meow.  There's not much to this book.  Just a picture of an animal and the sound it makes.  "The donkey says 'hee-haw!'" and "The bear says 'Grrr!'"  But hopefully Kiefer will pick up on the sounds and think it's fun to practice them, so to get us all to the talking phase as soon as possible.

Because at some point, someone else will be in the car when I'm trying to get him to talk.  And I know they are going to go jump out of the car and choose to walk after listening to me: "KEEE.  KEEEE.  KEEEEEEE-Fer!  Say it, Kiefer!  KEEE.  KEEEE. KEEEEEEEE-fer!"  (times infinity).