Her Words

A few months ago, Lilli reached that time in toddler-hood of verbal development.  She gave new meaning to vocabulary burst, repeating any words that struck her fancy (sometimes the bad ones too).  For a few months, she would say anything, and I mean anything, you'd ask her to repeat.  Except her name. She'd clam up immediately or walk away as if we told her to go away.  I knew it had to do with the difficulty she had with her "L's" but it still seemed off to me that she would seem so defeated so quickly.  Normally, if she doesn't get something, she'll bang her head against it until she figures it out.

We began working on various other L words with her, ones she didn't turn away from, like "lion" and her favorite cat, Linus (or "Nine-nus" as she called him for a while).  She started pointing to herself when we said "Lilli" instead of running away. She understood the concept but the words escaped her tongue. She slowly became more willing to at least try some L words and most of the time it came out sounding like a Y.  Now she calls herself "Yiddie" and that's a great accomplishment in my book.  She says all other L words now and slowly the pronunciation is becoming clearer.

She calls her step stool a "doof" and words like diaper and thunder come out with an "ah" sound at the end.  It makes me smile when she says them wrong. It's adorable and to be honest I'll miss it when she finally gets it right.  Sometimes I worry that I push her too hard, other times I know it's my job to teach her how to communicate. So, I keep trying to never say "no, that's not right" and always repeat the correct way to say the ones she misses.  It seems to work and I'm glad she is so excited to learn.  It makes my job a lot easier, that's for sure.

"Song of the Entry"
Tell Me Where You've Been by Hotel Eden

iToddler

It has to be such a difficult task to grasp the concept of self. While personally, I don't remember the challenge, I have the opportunity to have watched Lilli wrap her messy curly head around the idea.  To see her go from not even knowing she had hands to figuring out she is a singular being with an entire separate set of ideas, feelings and physical needs has been nothing short of incredible.  And luckily for us, she has become astonishingly good at expressing her "self" on a regular basis.

Her vocabulary is expanding at an alarming (and yes, I meant alarming) rate.  Every day she is learning new words, perfecting old ones, and putting together the English language and all of it's parts like she has known it all along.  Sometimes I am shocked, other times appalled.  For example, the time she finished my sentence after cursing at stubbing my toe "son of a...." "BITCH!" That one was all me, can't even pretend it was anyone else's fault. And then there are times when I marvel at her abilities. When she masters more than just the enunciation of the word, but also the concept.

One morning, we went into her room to get her out of bed.  She had misplaced her favorite stuffed animal, Augie, and was searching high and low.  Suddenly she looked at us with a distressed look and said "Augie missing!" The concepts to follow were quick and sometimes amusing.  She figured out how to create "Mommy, make house blocks." request assistance from someone specific "Daddy help?" and my least favorite "Mommy, get up!" She was pulling it all together and creating sentences.

While she understands that I am Mommy and Dave is Daddy, she has a hard time with her own name. We are really to blame, picking a name with three L's was not our best idea.  She has trouble with L's (sounding like Y) and R (coming out as an "ah" sound) and a few other letters.  She has been able to clear up most of her words with in a few weeks, even the R is coming around, but L's seem to escape her and worse frustrate her.  She refuses to say words with L's in them, especially her name.  So I guess the next best thing, when trying to say she was doing or needed something was using "I."

This new understanding turned into a narration of her day.  "I play. I hungry. I all done. I sweep. I help. I make. I clean. I make mess."  It was wonderful to finally get the play by play of what she was doing or planning.  Most recently she has started saying "I cold" which resulted in dragging out all of the winter hoodies from the back of her closet. My favorite so far, though, is "I busy." I can't count many times have I said "Lilli, Mommy is busy, you need to be patient." I would soon live to regret those words.

"Song of the Entry"
Living Room by Honey Clouds

Damn you, Dora!

We're not against television in our family. I'm not ashamed of it, I love to watch TV with Lilli. We sing songs and talk about what's going on and the characters. I point out things she knows and related them to whatever she has picked up that week. She learns a lot and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we interact with her, it's a tool not a babysitter.

However, once in a while we read about something that turns us off to a show. For example, Curious George teaches children how to misbehave by saying it's o.k. because he's a monkey. We monitor what she watches, we pay close attention to what she is picking up and try very hard to ensure that she's not being exposed to anything we wouldn't want to teach her ourselves.

Her favorite part of a show is the introduction song. Most of the time she will sing the song and not pay any attention to the rest of the show unless there's singing involved. She has recently started "singing" along with anything she recognizes, whether it be a song we sing together or a theme song on a show, she tries to mimic the sounds of the song. Of course most of the time they sound nothing alike, but it's adorable.

Her (and my) favorite show is Sesame Street. She loves Elmo and will stop dead in her tracks if she hears an Elmo song. She also watches Nick Jr. and Sprout from time to time. I'm not a huge fan of all of the shows she enjoys, to be honest I turn them off if I can't take any more. Dora was never a favorite of mine, but it's on right before bed and gives us an opportunity to clean up after dinner, get her pj's on, put away all of the day's toys, etc. She learned the word "backpack" and she has a Dora and Boot's tub toy that she learned how to "wash" while we wash her. All great learning tools... right?

Well, for those of you who have not heard the theme song to Dora:

Please note the "D-D-D-Dora" part... Dora the Explorer has taught my daughter to stutter. Needless to say, Dora is off of the regularly viewed programming list. Lesson learned.

"Song of the Entry"

Long Gone by Fourth of July

Banana

This morning I thought I'd share with you one of Lilli's favorite songs. She sings "Nana! Nana!" and insists you join her every time she sees a banana.

Happy Monday!

The Aggrolites - Banana (Yo Gabba Gabba!)

WTF | MySpace Video

Banana by The Aggrolites

Stories.

Every day, before nap and bedtime, we have story time. Lilli just needs to see the sign for stories or hear the word "story" and she will take off running towards her bedroom. She will bang on the door until we catch up to her and repeats "Ree-ree!" (which is "story" for those of you that don't understand Lilli-speak) over and over until the door is opened. Most of the time, there are no less than five books read for a nap and ten for bed.

Lilli will let you know which books she likes (or doesn't) and is more than outspoken about whether she wants us to read a few more before she goes down to sleep. Some nights, when we're exhausted and ready to just finish the standards, she'll protest with all of her might. Signing "more" and yelling "Ree-ree!" over and over, pointing at which ever book she wants next. No matter our mood, the events of the day, or time constraints, we will read as many stories as Lilli requests. How do you say "no" to reading? It'd be like saying she's had enough veggies and fruit.

Some days, she will dump her entire basket of books across the entire floor of our living room for the thirtieth time that day, sit in the middle and read. It's days like this that we're glad we powered through the millionth read of Olivia, Little Elephant's Listening Ears, or Peek-a-boo Kisses.

"Song of the Entry"

Wrecking Ball by Mother Mother

12 month gestures and language

With a year behind her, Lilli has realized there is more to these signs and gestures than just to get what she wants. She has learned to blow a kiss to Daddy when he leaves the room... well more like sucking on her hand then blowing spit everywhere, close enough. She figured out that, like a wave, it's a sign that correlates with an action. And now Daddy gets a special send off every time he leaves the house. She has also learned "uh-oh" and now throw-down-pick-up has become a favorite dinner time game.

Now, I'm sure I Pavlov-ed this one into her, but entertaining none-the-less. When I ask her how old she is, she puts up one finger (sometimes). I'm positive she doesn't understand WHY we clap and cheer frantically when she does this, but it made my heart grow three sizes.

yakkity yak

When Lilli first copied the sound "hi" in my high pitched, sing song, mommy voice, I thought she was just mimicking the sound and not the word. Within a few weeks she added "daadee" and then a few days later accompanied by a wave. At first, I had to initiate the combination, with an annoyingly loud and excitable "Hi Daddy!" But eventually she got the concept that it meant something more than just a sound we make when someone comes or leaves.

That was around June, and now in July she has picked up a few other connections. She knows that when we sing certain songs we clap. She knows when everyone claps at once someone did something wonderful (usually thinking it was her doing). She knows when she puts her fingers in her mouth she's telling me she is hungry and when she rubs her eyes it's time for a nap or bed.

It's not that I didn't want to tell anyone she had said her first word, I just didn't believe it was possible at 9-10 months. So I dismissed her signs, words, and other actions as coincidence time and time again. It wasn't until she accompanied the word or action with the correct setting that I really put it together.

I feel almost guilty that I didn't give her enough credit when she first made these monumental leaps in communication. I actually said out loud, "you really didn't just do that..." For that, I am sorry. Every single day she amazes me with her intelligence and ability. As I tell my youngest brother, I will always buy you books. I will always be their cheer leader.