Clever Girl

This little sweet pea doesn't much care for talking.

It has come as a real surprise to me. Considering her incredibly vocal newborn days, I had imagined her jibber-jabbering my ear right off for the rest of our lives.

I suppose there's still time for that.

But as of now, she's content to point and grunt.

Please pardon the focus as it is on my disgusting carpet.  WHY our landlord put white carpet in a rental is beyond me ... and the fact that it's over 20 years old?  Well ... it keeps our rent low so I can't complain too much.  But it's been four years now and I. Am. SICK of it. 

And say "Cheeeeeeese."

I've started to make a real effort to make her say something before I do what she needs.  And she does have a fair little vocabulary.  Off the top of my head, it includes:

• Dad ("DAT")
• Mom
• Mac ("Gak", mostly, but I think sometimes she says "dat" for him too.  Mac thinks both are inacceptable.)
• Cheese
• Please (sounds just like "cheese")
• Go (usually "go go go!")
• Shoes
• Poop
• Crackers ("ca-ca")
• Banana ("nana")
• Cupcake ("cake-cake")
• Gone ("Gah")
• Fish ("fssssh")
• Puppy ("pupup")
• Monkey (doesn't say the word ... it's actually just "oo-oo-ah-ah")
• Pig (another one she doesn't say, she just snorts.  She feels snorting is easier than saying "pig"!)
• Ball ("ba")
• Baseball ("baba")
• Foul Ball -- yes, I'm serious. ("Fah bah")
• Help -- ("Hep!" I hear it all day long ... and she sounds just like the Jinjos on Banjo Kazooie.  Please somebody say you remember those??)

I never taught her sign language, like I did a with Mac. (Only a handful, but he loved them.)  I'm thinking that's a good thing.  Had she been able to communicate proficiently with her hands, there's no way she would have any of those words down I just listed.  She loves to use her hands.  Any song with hand signals is an instant favorite.  

I love it; we sing "Popcorn Popping", "Latter Day Prophets", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Patty-Cake", "Book of Mormon Stories", "Ooey Gooey", and lots of made-up ones all day long.  However, I'm really making an effort to get her to speak.

So, the other day, she wanted a banana.  I know she knows the word, but she would not say it.  She grunted and reached and grunted and reached, while I kept saying, "Say 'banana, please'! 'Banana'!  Come on Belle, I want to hear your pretty voice.  'Banana!'"  She just smiled and kept pointing.  

Finally I bent down and put my index finger on her chin, opening her mouth and pretending to say, "Banana." She smiled and clapped.  Concept understood, right?  I stood up and started over.

"Okay little girl, open your mouth and say 'Banana'!"  

Without skipping a beat, she put a finger to her chin, opened her own silent mouth, then clapped and reached for the banana. 

Clever little stink pot.