New Words and Doings
At 14.5 months, Coral’s got some new words. I love her little voice and her funny babyspeak! It’s funny how I thought I’d never be able to understand a baby, having heard other parents interpret their kids’ babble. But now I see how it works. It’s just organic, and you can only understand your own baby.
- “Taw” = star. She’s excited about stars.
- “Munh” = moon. If Coral’s excited about stars, she’s ga-ga for the moon. She’s become a moon addict! Everywhere in every book, she looks for the moon and proclaims its presence. At any point in the day, she asks whether the moon is in the sky. And when it’s shining brightly, we hear a big “WWOWWW!”
- “Muh” = more. This is often difficult to tell apart from moon.
- “EEEE” = orange. I don’t know how or why, but that’s what she means. Must have been that some time when I fed her oranges, I said the name was “orange,” and all she could say was EEE. She asks for it by name now.
- “Bee” = beet OR bear OR bee, depending on context–seriously, no joke. You can tell what she means because either we’ll have beets and she’ll ask for them at a meal, or we’re reading a book and she points to the animal, either a bee or a bear.
- “Poo” = spoon, which Coral brandishes in her high chair as she says it.
- “Waywayway” = wait. This is because I always say “Wait wait wait!” while she’s running away. When I tell her to wait for something she wants, however, she is actually pretty good at waiting a few moments.
- “Owowow” = out. This is because I always say “Out out out!” when she goes into the bathroom without one of us (yes we need to fix the doorknobs because they don’t close properly and she can walk in whenever she wants).
- “Zhzhzhzhzhzoo” = shoe. This one makes me laugh.
- “Eeeahhww” = ear. She likes to grab your ear, then jerk your head around to grab the other ear.
- “Beep beep” = her bellybutton, which she pokes as she says it.
- “Guh” = girl. She does know she’s a girl.
- “Wower” = flower. We’ve asked her enough times in enough books and pointed them out on enough walks that she gets what they are.
- “Ti te” = thank you. This seems like a stretch, but I’m convinced that’s what it is. She only says it when one would say thank you, and she says it with the same inflection one uses to say it.
- “Bye” She doesn’t always say hi or bye at the right times, but she knows it’s a greeting of some sort and that you wave your hand when you say it.
- “Mommy” = mommy, that’s right! Finally.
She understands more, especially animals like cow, kitty cat, mouse, ducky, gorilla, elephant, lion, giraffe. She knows where her chin, cheek, forehead, eyebrow, and shoulders are. When I tell her to pick something up, she usually will, and when I say she can go down the stairs, she rushes to the top of the stairs. Because of our hardwood floors, we tell her she can only have the sippy cup of water in the kitchen, and either she drinks in the kitchen or she puts the sippy cup down, and she understands though she doesn’t obey half the time. It’s almost a game to her to try to walk off without us noticing!
When I ask her what the name of her new big, fluffy doggie is, she replies, “Mimi.” Of course, when I ask her what her new baby’s name is (a Cabbage Patch Kid she got for Christmas), her name is also Mimi. Too cute!
Phrases I don’t understand include “Hiiii bee ba bee ba bee ba bee ba” and “Ga GAI, ga GAI!” (often coupled with arms above the head). I have no clue. Apparently this is her secret language with her friend Kate at daycare.
It cracks me up that every time she sees her Uncle Steve’s photo in this photo book, she vehemently waves hello to him and almost yells, “HI! HI!” Just his photo. Go figure!
Coral can messily feed herself yogurt with a spoon. Her grasping technique is very…unique…since she holds it at the very end like a stick shift and points the spoon toward herself. But hey, whatever works.
More toys are interesting to her, like the shape sorter, in which she can successfully sort stars. She puts things in bins in addition to taking them out, and has even stacked a few blocks before smashing them to the ground. We throw the ball to each other (for all of two minutes till she gets bored) and we play hide and seek, sort of, where she “hides” behind our bed and we “hide” on the other side and she runs toward our side screaming with laughter. Standing at the clear plastic stair barrier and issuing a breathy series of “Hi,” sometimes smushing her face on the plastic, is another favorite activity. I don’t understand it but it cracks me up.
Little girl is very generous. She likes to give me her blankie when I go in in the morning. It’s like a gift, and I have to accept it, at which point she claps. Such a sweet little routine.
