Ivan really likes muppets and especially Grover.  At the toystore at a stand of fingerpuppets he was pointing and making a “eh! eh!” noise of wanting, I handed him fingerpuppet after fingerpuppet.  He let me know I was wrong in guessing what he wanted by taking each fingerpuppet and then emphatically hurling it to the ground.  Finally, I gave him the Grover fingerpuppet and he smiled and said, “Gro-gah.”  He carried Grover throughout the rest of our visit to the store, though he was willing to let go and return it to its friends before we left.

At first Grover just meant the blue muppet of that name, but now it seems to mean any muppet and he also says it when he points to other cartoon characters.  So, now shopping in Target he will begin bouncing excitedly and saying, “Gro-gah! Gro-gah!”  I will look around and see a pair of Elmo slippers in view in the shoe section.

I think the Grover-loving began mostly with a number of Ezri’s Sesame Street books and a collection of small board books with Sesame St. muppets that we carry around a lot.  He likes to flip through the books and find Grover – pointing at the blue muppet and saying “Gro-gah!”

Here is a list of words we have heard Ivan use.

Gro-gah (Grover)
Babeee (Baby but used for all photos of humans or actual humans)
Da (Dad)
Bah-ah (Battle)
Cheh-Cheh (cheers while raising his bottle or sippy cup to clink)
Crah-Crah (clap, clap, clap – part of the fingerplay roll, roll sugarbabies)
Whoah! (when blocks we have stacked fall down)
Eh-eee (Ezri)

This is Ivan finding Grover in one of his books.  The sweatshirt is a hand-me-down.  Somehow, we do have a lot of Sesame St. around here.