The Latest and Greatest

Lily's increasingly becoming an interactive player in her environment, and I would be content to spend all day just watching her figure things out. Like a little sponge, she is just soaking in the information and attempting to put all her newfound knowledge to use. She spends a good deal of time watching and listening and then trying to do/say what she sees/hears.

Lily currently puts her pretend phone and real phones up to her ear, puts the brush on her hair, pulls at her clothes when we start running the bath water, holds the fingernail clippers to each of her fingers, and reaches for the doorknob when she wants a door open. It's hilarious because she knows the basic function of things and how they should be used, she just isn't able to make the actual motions yet. Probably more frustrating than hilarious to her.

Much like the clientele at a Denny's restaurant, her vocabulary includes several regulars with a few infrequent visitors. Her over 70 crowd there religiously for the early bird specials would be: mama, dada, no, thank you (tane ewe), uh oh, Mona (nona) [her teacher], bottle (ba). Hi, bye, dog, and ball would be the teenagers in for the after-hours appetizers, making regular but infrequent visits. Those people just having the annual craving for bad food would be Lily's "grandma" and "baby". It's not just that she says these words but that she says them in the appropriate context. She has no problem telling me "no" when she does not want to get out the bathtub, and when she sees her bottle, she automatically says "ba" with a big smile. Much of her vocabulary is of course driven by exposure and then the basic principles of language development. But her delivery and her expressions are uniquely hers, and I love it!