Helen is at that age where I can be stunned at any moment with how much she has learned, and how quickly. I think she continues to be least "talkative" of any of our 4 kids were at comparable ages, but she certainly does communicate just fine. She uses just a few favorite words often, punctuated by new or occasional words for clarity, and all well-seasoned with expressive pointing and gestures.
She has been adding language, I know, because she now clearly understands so much of what we say. Just in the last few days, she will often repeat words after you, whereas even last week she would refuse to utter new sounds, even to blankly repeat them. Now, she repeats them and acts as if she has always known them and wonders why you are asking her to say them now.
Today, she had another small language breakthrough that was fun to witness. We were sitting in a small lobby, waiting for a car repair. I had brought a bag of picture books to pass the hour. The one she chose today was a chunky, oversized board book with few words. Each page had photographs of baby faces, labeled with a common emotion. Sleepy. Angry. Shy.
"Helen, look, these babies feel Sad."
"Sad." She repeated this after me, quite clearly.
"Here are some happy babies."
"Hop! Baby Hop!"
"Yes, the babies feel happy."
Our scintillating conversation went on in this vein for a while. Then she got bored and asked to nurse. She plopped sideways in my lap, snuggled her head into the crook of my arm, and requested, "Ide!" Then, unusually, instead of wriggling impatiently or pulling at my shirt, she paused, looked up at me, and said, "Baby hop!"
I thought a minute. "Helen, do you mean that
you feel happy now?"
She silently grinned and nodded enthusiastically. What more could a mom really want from a day?
