I don’t think I’ve mentioned here that I’m besotted by my small person … oh ok then, I have, endlessly … sorry, but really, I am … and utterly in awe of her as well … well not just her, but her small chums too… their capacity to learn, to imitate and to make sense of their world is miraculous.
Today (as well as her great hand eye co-ordination, her ability to eat an entire portion of chicken satay with a fork and not drop a morsel, the way she sings in fluent Hopeish but in perfect tune and her throwing skills), it’s her word association and vocabulary that have left me warmed and overwhelmed. The way she heard me talking about the lovely sunny day and burst into Incy Wincy spider the other evening by the paddling pool confused me briefly, and then, I reflected on what I’d said … she’d heard the word “sunshine” and remembered it was in her (current) favorite action song …. “out came the sunshine and dried up all the rain.”
New words and her understanding are constant, “floor”, “eeyore”, “twit twooo”, “sky”, “plane”, “helicopter”, “camera” “whoopsy daisy”, all appeared in the last 24 hours … and she is able to choose between things and recognize objects not just in pictures but for real and then in totally different contexts.
She is also becoming more wilful and deliberate in her decisions and actions, and now manages a phenomenal yell if she isn’t happy with my decision as to which toy she should play with or the fact that crawling under a fence isn’t a cunning plan … she wants to walk and will happily wear her little reins but then will sit down and refuse to walk further if she senses that I am holding the reins at all.
If something accidentally falls on the floor I say, “whoops”, if she throws food, or drops it deliberately, I say, “Hope no”. That used to be enough, now she’ll either just look at me and fling the food anyway or look at me smile and when she thinks I’m not looking will sneak it down the other side on to the floor … little monkey.
All of the above are wonderful (on the whole) but some of the best (and worst) moment’s of the lasts few days have involved one particular phrase:
when she didn’t want the blood test in hospital
when she has finished having her nappy changed
when she has eaten all the pasta pesto she can manage
when she has finished dropping the bits of sausage she doesn’t like over the front of her high chair
when she has put her socks on
when she’s fastened her shoes herself
when she is getting fed up with me chatting on the phone
when she isn’t center of attention in a group of adults who are all talking to each other and not her
and tonight … when, tired, after playing football and eating cake at the church tea party, she’d finished a great big milky breastmilk feast, she flopped back and said,
“all done” in a very matter of fact way
and then went straight to sleep.
Told you I was besotted … I haven’t stopped smiling since!
