Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Stinkerbella Talks

I have been sadly lax about noting down her language development, even though I've been paying attention. Some of the new things she's been saying lately:

Where he go?
Go back home!
It's mines!
Rock it! (wanting me to rock her in the chair)
C'mere -- I wuv you (whispered)
Oh my GOODness! (much better than the *other* thing she was saying)
Zoe's big booger -- excuse me! (pretending to blow her doll's nose)
Bless you, momma.
Granny, Sissy onna airplane!

I think she's going to be an ace at charades because she generally manages to make herself understood and strangers are starting to be able to follow, though sometimes I still have to translate. She really wants to participate in conversations and to talk to people or animals or whatever she sees. Right now she's very much into greetings and will say "Hi!" and "Goodbye" to people, horses, or whatever inanimate objects catch her fancy. She's also very much into imaginative play with her dolls and stuffed animals. We bought her a doctor's kit for her birthday (on the suggestion of the pediatrician, so I'm sure you can fill in the blanks as to why) and she loves it and will diagnose Elmo & co for surprisingly long periods of time.

Yesterday we were upstairs and she came up to me and said, "Blue one -- where he go??" I already had a hunch of what she was talking about, and sure enough it turns out that she had started off drawing on her chalkboard, moved over to the radiator and decorated it, and then dropped her colored chalk inside. I'm sure when she got on her hands and knees and figured out it wasn't coming out, she went to get me. Today she came up to me and said, "[Babble babble] inna trash can" and while I'm not quite positive what it was that she threw away, I think it was just some string she found on the floor. Which was helpful, really. But you just never know...

And I haven't even started on her French, which I think is probably just as good as her English on some levels. I was a bit worried for a while because while she's always had more English vocab (manhole cover, for example, still shocks me) it seemed as if she was making more sentences in French, but I think if I check around it might be a normal phase for French/English bilingual children. She can also ask where things are in French, say who things belong to, and some simple sentences...the equivalent of "He's gone/hidden; It's finished; Put the shoes on" and so forth.

She knows a surprising amount of songs and also apparently knows which CDs they are on. Yesterday she went, found the Kool & the Gang CD (which was shelved on the CD rack, spine out), brought it to me and requested "Let's Go Dancing." Today it was "Baby Boogoola" (Baby Beluga).

So, yeah, it's been pretty fun around here. I am missing her babble just because it was so random and hilarious, but true sentences are pretty cool, too. Oh, and I almost forgot one of the funniest things...she called her great-grandmother on the phone while I had my back turned. The number is programmed in, so she managed to grab the phone (which is right beside the art desk, so tempting to a little one who's supposed to be coloring) and hit the right combination of buttons. I heard her jibber-jabbering away and found her on the phone with a very confused great-grammie on the line!

3 comments:

Beth said...

Congrats to both of you! Sounds like she's really coming on strong with the chatter.

BTW- A couple of weeks ago, I noticed speculoos flavored spread at the Geant supermarket. i picked some up, but didnt open the jar until yesterday. It was SO fabulous that I took a picture of the jar and planned to mention it in a future post.
Then, just now, I checked your blog for the first time in a few days, and I find you beat me to it. It's right there in the sidebar.
It is SO fabulous.
Can people in the US find it? (I've been thinking about mailing it to people, in order to share the cookie-goodnes of it with the world)

Michelle said...

That is SO precious! I still miss some of the phrases that Connor and Holly used to say. It's the first real sign that they are growing up, IMO.

Kathy said...

What a smart little girl! You are doing such a GREAT JOB! I think smart folks have even smarter children!! Take time to write down some of her cute phrases. It's fun to look back at them in later years.