Babble

"Di di dit?" - Maeve

I'm hearing a lot more Maevish from my daughter lately.  She'll repeat one of her phrases to me over and over, holding up and object and looking at me pointedly.  Clearly, I'm supposed to understand the import of her speech, but I don't really speak Maevish.

However, every time she holds up an object, I say its name, or make its animal noise, or both.  I generally sound like a barnyard these days.  Cow! Mooooo.  Chicken! Buck buck begawk.  Horse! Naaaaaaay.  Sometimes she stumps me.  Turtle! ... Sting Ray!... Caterpillar!...

I think, however, that between repeating Maevish phrases to me and holding up things for me to name, we're getting somewhere linguistically.  Her only words so far are still just Momeeee and Dididi, but soon I expect to hear one of my animal impressions, or maybe "May" which we've been working on so she can learn her own name.

I'm also trying to help her make connections between the animals in her books and her stuffed animals.  Sometimes when we read her farm books, I hold up each animal (except the pig and chicken, we don't have stuffed animals of either of those) when I show her the animal on the page.  She furrows her brow, deep in baby thought.  Twice she actually reached for the monkey when I showed her the monkey in the book.  Now that feels like progress!

I'm excited to see what her third word will be.  We'll keep you posted!

C'mon, Daddy, what sound does a whale make?