Leilani is doing really good talkingwise. The 3 new words now are up, this and me. Me (or more often Me Me Me Me!!!) means “I want that” and “I am not going to give it to you”. This means “What is this?” and “I want to look at this / smell this / examine this closely”. Up means “Pick me up”, “I am climbing the couch / chair”, “Up”, “Out” (of the house, of the water) and sometimes “Down” (as in on the floor out of the highchair). Fortunately she is pointing a lot, that makes it easier to understand.
I need to get more consistent using the signs, and also learn more of them, but she seems to pick them up very fast. She still can’t say “U” and her “O” is pretty bad, but she’s mastered a surprising number of consonants
A few days ago I dismissed her pleas “Up, Up, Up” as babbling when she was in the swing and I was hanging laundry. Then she called “Mama, Mama”, and when I looked over she said “Mama, Baby up”. Of course I took her out right away to reward great communication!
She now often signs “Milk” when she wants to nurse, which is a big improvement over saying mecc (or screaming). Andy looked at a picture book with her yesterday, and she saw a picture of a goat with nursing kids, and signed milk – that’s pretty smart! She also signs crab – which is indistinguishable from milk, Andy taught her that sign just 2 days before we looked at the Signing DVD. I am now trying to teach her to do the crab with both hands, but usually the context makes it pretty clear what she means.
I think I mentioned “Wawa” (water) before, she is now really good at telling us when she wants to drink, but she also points out the other waters (in bottles, glasses, faucets, ocean…)
She woke up the other day and saw Mikey sleeping next to her. She adores him, but he runs from her when she is awake, only comes close while she is sleeping (she is pulling tails these days) So she looked at Mikey with a big smile and said “Mei” I said “That’s right, that is Mikey” and she said “Ki”!
