Big Talker

Lucia’s language is progressing every day. It’s truly an amazing thing to witness. She adds new words all the time by herself, and she picks things up quickly and permanently when I suggest them to her. Yesterday, when she was asking for “Book!”, I suggested she say “Read book, please,” when she’d like to be read to. She is now pretty consistent at saying “Read book!” and does a very cute “Peees!” when I remind her. Then she’ll keep saying it—“Peees! Peees!”—making it impossible not to do whatever it is she wants.

She asks for her "blue hat," tells us when she's dropped something ("drop Bibi!" "drop cat!"), asks for more, which is still "mai" ("Mai cheese!" "Mai apple!") She says "Bye, bye, cat" and "Bye, bye, stick" or whatever else we're leaving behind. She says "Baby cry" when we hear a crying infant. Two-word phrases are a standard milestone for two years old, I've been reading, and I'm hoping my little A-student hits three words this month. We'll be hitting the workbooks shortly.

She talks all the time about the pond in NH, telling an elaborate story in a series of single words—pond, wawa, baby, Mama, toes (we put our toes in the pond), [jumping frog motion], Dada. Now, when asked what Daddy does in the pond, she says excitedly, “Smim!” She came up with the word all by herself, and the look on her face when she said it the first time was priceless. So pleased!

She still says cute mixed-up baby versions of many things; here are just a few:

bubbick = bucket
monick = monkey
bihm = bib
shim = spoon

But by far her favorite sentence is “Watch Elmo.” She knows we don’t watch any Elmo videos until evening, after dinner, but occasionally something short-circuits in her toddler brain and she runs through the house yelling, “Watch Elmo! Watch Elmo! Watch Elmo!” She seems to sometimes be under the mistaken belief that if she says it louder, I’ll acquiesce. And sometimes, when she thinks she might have a chance of reaching me subliminally, I’ll look over at her beside me and meet her little eyes and realize she’s whispering almost inaudibly, “Watch Elmo.” “After dinner,” I whisper back, which either makes her giggle or makes her angry, depending on her mood and tolerance for Mama whispering.

She’s also gotten very good with names. She knows and says the names of some of the children we see regularly. She also knows Barbra, Chris, and Baby Alex, and some pretty random others: our upstairs neighbor Sasha; our kind but loud neighbor a few doors down, Milly; and the man who cleans our halls and manages the garbage cans outside, Charlie. She likes to wave at Charlie. She is terrified of Milly.

Comments

Sara said…
I giggled at the image of Lucia whispering subliminal "watch Elmo!" messages to you. :)