language is so cute

[moominmolly]

The small girl is totally in the process of acquiring language, and I'm hypnotized already. She's getting signs, but she clearly prefers to speak; she will often try to say a word several times and if we don't understand, she will resort to using the sign. A partial list of things she says or signs (some intermittently):

SIGNS: Milk, book, more, hat, bye-bye, food, pointing, pick-me-up, nod (yes), shake-head (no), Kaz
WORDS: Cat, daddy, glasses, thank you, dog, "here you go!", mama

It must be said that many of these are only distinguishable if you already know what they sound like. :) I think there are more, but I'm drawing a blank at the moment. I know that she understands more than this, but I'm not sure how MUCH more. So nerve-wracking! Time to stop swearing like a sailor.

Yesterday evening, we were sitting around in the bedroom. She picked up the bjorn, and handed it to me. When I put it on and put her in it to go for a walk, she started signing "HAT HAT HAT HAT!" and pointing at D's top hat, across the room.

---

HAT HAT HAT HAT HAT

"Yes, that's a hat! That's daddy's hat."

HAT HAT HAT HAT [POINT]

"Would you like the hat? Here you go!"

HAT HAT HAT [GRAB]

"That's a nice hat! Natalie is wearing daddy's hat!"

*small giggles from underneath gigantic hat*

---

So, we went to the grocery store, with N grasping the top hat with both hands so that she could lift it up enough to peek out from underneath it. She would occasionally let out these little giggles, like she was getting away with something. That child is sneaky. Later in the evening, she learned the game where you offer an object to someone, and then, when they begin to take it from you, you snatch it back, shake your head NOOOOOOOO, and laugh.

She's a tiny little maelstrom of trouble waiting to happen, that one.

Comments

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

I love this age.

[arachne8x.livejournal.com]

Oh I am grinning from ear to ear reading this. Your little one is adorable.

[regyt.livejournal.com]

That is too cute!

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

When my cousins were a couple of years old, my dad thought it was hilarously funny to teach them to say things. The older of my local cousin got away with "bummer, dude!" but the little one got "quantumchromodynamics."

[fanw.livejournal.com]

My dad taught my brother "cogito ergo sum". He was, like, four.

[zmook.livejournal.com]

Lemur! Zebu! Dodecahedron!

[beah.livejournal.com]

My father taught me a rather naughty line from "The Exorcist." Really, be careful what you think will be cute when the in-laws are scheduled to visit!

[abilouise.livejournal.com]

The woman who took care of me when I was that age would ask me "How do plants make food?" and I would answer "photosynthesis"

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I can just hear a four-year-old saying that. It seems adorable.

[cruiser.livejournal.com]

My sister's first word was 'Batman' - she has two older brothers who were big fans of the show.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

so cute!

that is oneon game that I doubt will be played in *this* household, though, where the small child does not exactly enjoy the wearing of hats, hers or otherwise. The hat game is "adult puts on hat, gljiva takes off hat as quickly as posssible", dontcha know?

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

N doesn't like *her* hats, and plays the same game that gljiva does when we try to wrestle one of those on. We like to think that she is very patiently trying to teach us, "Babies don't need hats, even if it's raining, no matter what their mommies say".

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

Curses! I want to make her a squid hat real bad.

[starphire.livejournal.com]

It would have made an utterly cute photo series.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Oh! You're right, I missed my chance. :)

[moonshadow.livejournal.com]

So adorable! I miss her!

[bethr.livejournal.com]

that is so cute! how old is she again?

One of my favorite ages, as I may have mentioned before is about 14-18 months. They walk, they talk, they turn from babies to people before your eyes. (As opposed to when they turn from infants to babies. Or from globs of newborn goo to infants.)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

11 months. 11 and a half, I suppose -- she'll be a year on Thanksgiving. She's walking and talking and starting to be a person. The next several months should be fascinating!

[bethr.livejournal.com]

And then there are times at around 18months, when they're using language like mad and start to acquire skill in using utensils. I'm reminded of Sonia, sitting at the dinner table in a grownup chair and booster seat, dropping her fork on the ground and screaming "Oh SHIT!" in precisely the volume and inflection of her parents.

[dbang.livejournal.com]

The next several months should be fascinating!

And the several after that, and the ones after that too.

My olders are almost 7 and I'm still fascinated...

[oonh.livejournal.com]

really, you should start giving natalie things and get her to say "noun noun noun"

tho' this might be a level of abstraction a little too willowy silly

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Overgeneralization is charming, but it can make actual communication kind of hard. :)

[valancy17.livejournal.com]

you could just start singing the Grammar Rock songs to her... ;-)

[dbang.livejournal.com]

How about teaching her to say alt dot swedish dot chef dot bork dot bork dot bork.

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

Dude, you are SO DOOMED! ;)

[harimad.livejournal.com]

I'm not usually entranced by other people's kids but I would have lost it, had I been lucky enough to be in the grocery for that trip.

H, with "conjunction junction" running through my head

[veek.livejournal.com]

That child is sneaky.

Given the genes, what'd you expect?