My little chatterbox

Now that Nathaniel does nothing but talk, I am over the whole "he didn't talk until he was 2 1/2" thing. He knew what was going on the whole time, he just chose not to say it. He is still playing dumb, but not about his vocab, that's for sure.

For Leah, my toddler worries are elsewhere: what will my darling princess climb or destroy today? At least she makes life interesting. And I'm not really that attached to our stuff anyway.

It is hard to gauge how far she is in her speech because big brother is always "interpreting" for her. Sometimes it's legit, sometimes it's "Mommy, Leah wants to go outside so I can ride my bike."

I told you the kid was smart.

On our last (and only) trip to the Ft Wayne zoo this summer, Leah was in heaven. She is our animal lover but it wasn't until then that I realized how many animal names she was trying to say. Point at an animal and she will try to repeat the sounds.

Here is a list of animal names she can say with no hesitation:
Cat
Dog
Horse
Pig
Duck
Bee
Turtle
Frog

Nathaniel could say peacock before he'd say cat or dog, and used animal sounds instead of names until he was 3. So she's got him beat on quantity, but maybe not quality.

Other than the obvious Momma and Dadda, she can also say Harley, snack, juice, milk, Jell-O, please, eye, belly, ball, eat, and so on.

She's a whiz in the grocery store too. Most of the time I'm yelling at Nathaniel to stop sprinting down the dairy aisle or put down every food item that happens to have a cartoon character on it. That would be how I discovered "Jell-O" in her repetoire.

Today, she walked up to me with her blanket (that the rest of us have affectionately nicknamed Blankie) and said something unintelligible and "wash?" She carries the darn thing everywhere and occasionally I throw it in the washer to make it pink again. I told her we wouldn't have time to give Blankie a bath today, but maybe tomorrow... or next week when Mommy is forced to tackle laundry again.

By then, who knows what she'll ask me to wash.

And since my little girl knows how to make me smile,

"Everyday"

Pick me up, love, from the bottom
Up onto the top, love, everyday
Pay no mind to taunts or advances
I'll take my chances on everyday

Left to right
Up and up and inside out right
Good love fight for everyday

Jump in the mud, mud
Get your hands filthy love
Give it up love, everyday

All you need is
All you want is
All you need is love