28 Days of Loving Lily: Day 9 - Our Chats

Chatting with your uncle Mark

For a long time now, you have been using your signs to communicate with us, but these past several months have brought with them new words and new concepts that you are able to communicate and it has been so much fun!  You love talking and I love to hear you talking on your "phone" in the back seat while we drive.  The main words I can make out are "Hi Dada."  or "Hi Papa."  It is super cute and I just want to drive looking backwards so I can watch you in your little mirror. (One reason why I love red lights!) 

You love to take "roll call" and name everyone who is in the room or everyone you saw that particular day.  These days, you talk constantly, but we are not yet able to make out a lot of what you are saying.  If we take context into account, it is easy to grasp what you are trying to say, but to the untrained ear, it still sounds like you are speaking your own language.  But we know better!  You are talking up a storm!  

Sometimes you absolutely amaze me.  Every time we are at Jazzercise, you remind me to get our coats and water bottles and don't let me forget anything we may have brought with us.  Yesterday while rushing out the door, my earring fell out of my ear and I just left it on the floor because we were in a huge hurry and I asked you to remind me when we got home that I had dropped it.  Three hours later when we got home, you were looking at my rings and you remembered my earring and began reminding me about my dropped earring from earlier by pointing to where I had dropped it and saying over and over again, "Uh-oh, uh-oh" until I showed you my earring that I had picked up.  You not only remembered, but you told me! It was amazing.  You love to say, "Boo!" and peek out from a hiding place or call out, "Hiya!" when you are standing up on something you are not supposed to be standing on.  You know the names of all of your Sesame Street "action" figures and you are starting to sing along with some of your favorite tunes.

You are beginning to string words together into short sentences and you are a wonderful mimicker (much to my dismay sometimes!) and you are really getting good at saying more complex words as well like 'breakfast' and 'Jazzercise.'  I have always felt like we could communicate with each other even when you were not able to speak yet, as your receptive language was incredible.  But now that your expressive language is taking off, I'm absolutely loving every minute of our little chats.