thanks Seinfield

I caught myself saying blah, blah, blah today. Dear daughter siezed the phrase, as she is prone to do these days. I had a vision of a toddler speaking beautifully until she learned a catchy phrase. Then the daughter gave up all that vocabulary for blah, blah, blah, and yadda, yadda, yadda.

and...and...and...umm...umm

Tonight dear daughter would not sleep. She kept listing people and dogs and cats that were sleeping.

And, umm, Hopper, and, umm, Stella sleeping...
Umm, Tabitha sleeping and Walter sleeping...

one, two, three

Ahh we've come such a long way since July. There's been the use of verbs and phrases. Now she's even settling into her own comfortable use policies. For example, she doesn't like to use the word yes in response to a yes or no question. She says sure, ok, or yeah. Sure is used when she really wants something. Ok is followed with a paraphrase of the original question, and yeah is used when something's merely agreeable to her.

She's beginning to count. Babies can recognize quantity at very early age. I've been counting to five and then back down to one on my hand for her since she was a few days old. Now as we've been playing with blocks she's been saying one, two, three as we put the blocks back in their tub.

I pointed out two dogs to her and she counted with me, one, two dogs. Dogs always elicit enthusiasm.

new phrases:
trick or treat
happy halloween

mind your bagel when you potty

New word: bagel

This is a note of caution to those in charge of a little one. Mind your bagel when you potty. I left a paper grocery bag near the front door. It was filled with jars of baby food. When I left the baby to potty myself, I thought she would be happily occupied pulling the jars out until I got back. A safe activity, I thought. Not so.

I heard rustling of a plastic bag, one of those items that falls into the "worst baby toy" category. My sleep deprived, memory strained brain did not remember the bagel I'd bought for myself to go with some smoked salmon for a very delicious special mommy moment later in that morning.

Dear daughter didn't need the cream cheese or salmon to enjoy the fresh whole grain bagel. So delighted was she that she repeated bagel?, bagel., bagel!, to the world. And ate half, which is a lot for such a little thing.

It was a vocabulary building moment.

Sorry old cats

The cat was chasing his tail yesterday. It was so sad. The tail chasing used to get me every time. I would laugh and watch him thereby egging him on. Now compared to a one- year-old human that came from my own body and is copying what I say, well, there’s no comparison.

I used to love “communicating” with my cats. I was pleased to have an after-school routine with one. We’d run down to the basement, he’d jump on the bar, I’d nuzzle him then I’d open the screen door to give him a sniff of the air outside—no matter the weather.

Oh sorry old cats. You’ve been outdone.

Hi sweetie!

New words TODAY:
frog
stick - handy at the park when I've brought no toys

New words:
nice - referring mostly to cats
book
hi sweetie - this is a phrase her daddy uses, she's delightedly repeating this one
shoes - this is an old one but she's really using it now because it gets her a walk outside
outside
off/on
I know, I know - the followup to the very cute I don't know, yes, she may actually know what this means, I'm noticing just how much she hears it around the house
towel
horse

So read it here folks because she clams up when anyone outside her imediate family is present. My next hurdle is to get her more comfortable around some other people, but that 's another blog.

too much to write

bib
maaama - for llama she learned to emphasize the first syllable
off
down
up
cup
bowl
shoes

Forgive me if I'm repeating myself. I can't see the other posts and I'm just typing her words as I think through today's conversations. So exciting that we're starting to get verbs now. She's so happy to be communicating. But still, she won't repeat. She'll mimic. There's a lot of that. I'll hear her say something like, "here you go". Then she won't repeat. Happy days. Helen Keller moments. For a full-time mom, this is the greatest!