Helen's speech makes a leap - UPDATED

Just this week, Helen started talking in earnest using sentences. It has been fun to hear. Her vocabulary has really exploded in the last month. If we stop to decipher, we find that she is saying about any word that she wants to. But now she is putting three or four of those words together on a regular basis. She still prefers to point and pull, generally, but there are too many demands and stories obviously waiting to bubble out of her for that to last long.

This week we heard:

Daddy sit down book ("Read to me now")
Mom(pp) - chair side ("Sit in this chair and nurse me" - "side" means nurse, as in "other side"; the "pp" at the end of Mom is a persistent but cute mystery to us)

Of course, she can still be direct when needed. Her current favorite book is Miss Mary Mack. When she wants that read to her, she just whacks me solidly with the book and yells "Mack!"

Helen at 20 months

 She keeps adding words and phrases! Today (10-9-12), clear as bell, she said (to the direction of John and Maggie after they left the car for gymnastics classes), "Bye-bye! See you soon!"

When we pull into the long drive for the kids' school, we go past the playground, where she begins pointing and shouting, "Big slide! Please, slide?" Then, once past the mecca of fun, the chanting turns to, "John? James? Maggie?" Or, actually, it sounds like, "Don! Dame! Mawma!" For herself, she prefers the enthusiastic (but not exclusive) use of the name, "Baby!"

After falling off the stool today and banging her head (a regular occurrence, particularly around naptime), she began crying quite clearly for "Da-yee!" First time I have noticed her specifically scorning me and wanting Daddy to hug away the hurts. I guess she is really enjoying their mornings home together this semester. For which I am very glad.