Monday, January 26, 2009

Tiny Talk Tuesday

The chatterbox stage is coming on! It's fun to go shopping with Esmé (21 months) and listen to all she has to say about things.

Last night after 10 p.m. we snuck into the grocery store - me furtively glancing around to make sure no one would call Child Protective Services on me for having her out so late. She was in no mood to be quiet.
On the cereal aisle, it was "Tiger - Grrrr!" as we passed Kellogg's Tony the Tiger. "Kitkat - Meow!" as we went down the pet food aisle. "Open - peez! Now!" as the snack boxes were placed in the cart - though she managed to open the cardboard just fine, only getting stuck on the inside wrapping. "Cold!" as the frozen items joined the snacks in the cart. "Balloons! Frog! Kitkat! Fish!" as we went through the checkout line. All at TOP volume...

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I love her interpretations of pictures and objects. We finally have "donkey" and "horse" straightened out. But a helicopter is definitely an "airplane." Tomatoes are "apples." And of course all ballerina dolls are "Mommy!"

And sized objects now have identities. The big measuring spoon is "Papa." And the littlest one is "Me" - and of course she has to eat something with "Me."

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Possession is also becoming extremely important. Shoes are "Papa," "Mommy," or "I", "me," "my," "Esmé." Same with other objects of clothing. And if we don't remember exactly which seat we sat in last time, Esmé helps us out by pointing to the correct chair and naming which of us belongs in it.

Sometimes she gets a little confused, though. Daddy is borrowing Uncle Jaques' watch at the moment, and it was lying on a table by the bed. She came over while he was still sleeping, woke him up, and motioned for him to put the watch on her.

"No, that's Uncle Jaques' watch. You can't wear it."

With absolute fierceness in her face, she pointed at herself with both fingers and said, "MY! Put on now!"

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Her songs are becoming more and more appropriate and understandable too. Today she pulled out her stroller, sat down on it, and started singing "walk today, walk today, walk today" - part of a song we sing in her class at church. So of course we had to go for a walk today!

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Esmé also likes to role play other objects. Like with her graham crackers - in teddy bear and bee shapes. She called me over to show me "bear, bee kiss, Mommy!"


And she's also naming objects as she draws them. We can't always understand what she's telling us, but round squiggles are often "apples," and she can draw identifiable "hands," too.

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"Thank yous" are so sweet! I cut up a burger for her the other day, and as I finished, she said "Thank you, Mommy! Thank you, Mommy! Thank you, Mommy!" over and over. She then proceeded to eat not a bite, but she sure was thankful for it...
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If you're wondering what the joke is below, she took the sock off her foot and put it on her hand. Yesterday she put one sock and shoe on a foot, and the other sock and shoe on the opposite hand, and started walking around on all fours...

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Only 5 more days til Operation Love Zimbabwe!

6 comments:

Richard Lawry said...

It is so interesting to try to peek inside the mind of a child. What a fun post.

An Arkie's Musings

Anonymous said...

What a cutie!

It seems like Angel girl is saying a new word every day now and she has a couple of phrases she uses regularly like, "Here mama" and "Give me!" and "Up Pweeze!"

Daphine said...

Great post! I really enjoyed it!

Anonymous said...

We sure are missing you, Esme girl! Would love to hear your running chatter! Keep seeing pictures of you cross our screen on screensaver mode and wonder how you and your mommy & daddy are doing. Hugs and love
Your Moziwoods family

Damselfly said...

Wow, she sure is talking! That's great! It's cute how she role plays with objects.

Unknown said...

Love these! Ladybug hasn't started on the possession words yet, but she definitely is a talker too. Combine her spoken words with her signs and she is quite expressive!