jueves, 21 de octubre de 2010

It's About Time


1) Since it's been awhile since I posted a Clara update, and
2) the kids is making strides (quite literally) in a number of areas,
here's the skinny on Chubbs:

She walks! Without holding onto my hand! The second week that we were visiting my parents, she and I went to Parkview North's playground. I was sitting on a bench about 3 yards away from her as she played with their enormous abacus. After awhile, she pooped out, took a seat, and asked me to pick her up. I told her to walk to me. She kept asking, I kept insisting. Finally, she planted her hands on the ground, hoisted her heiney in the air, got to her feet and walked over to me. I was incredulous. She just looked at me, plainly saying, "What's the big deal? Of course I can walk."

Thanks for finally letting us in on the secret.

Her vocabulary is also advancing with leaps and bounds. Keeping in mind that bilingual children are a bit slower to speak, I was still getting a little worried when, at 20 months, her only recognizable words were "mama" and "papa". And even those words were hit and miss. Just within the last week or two, she has developed an 8-word vocabulary.

  • Mama
  • Papa (she does say "dada" pretty frequently, but as we've never referred to Mario as "daddy or "dada", I'm not counting it as anything.)
  • baby. Until yesterday, this did not refer to a baby, at least not in Clara's mind. To Clara, "baby" means animal, any animal. Puppies, Chris's cats, the hornet in my parents' kitchen, illustrations of cows . . . they're all babies. Finally yesterday she did point to Baby Bill and call him "baby".
  • no. Today she decided to prove that she is very, very good at "no". Funny how the baby books often mentioned that kids learn to say "no" right around the same time they learn how to walk. They were right on, in Clara's case.
  • please. She still does the sign language, but now she'll often accompany it with a verbal, "pee".
  • ball. It comes out as either "ba" or "be". Very consistent, though. I think it was her first word after mama and papa.
  • yeah. I've heard her say it a few times in the last week, but "no" has solidly eclipsed anything positive.
  • beer. Mario was enjoying one tonight and Clara was working really hard to get a sip. After quite awhile without success, she thought it would be good effect to string together, "Pee [accompanied with hand signal], bee." For real? Beer?!? You're out of control, Clara.

2 comentarios :

Krystal L. dijo...

That is absolutely hilarious and you are not alone! I was very worried about Mia's lack of talking when compared with her two older sisters that were talking a mile a minute but 18 months. The doctor said not to worry until she's 3 or 3 1/2 yrs and not talking. She turns 3 next week and she started talking her head off about 6-8 weeks, thank goodness!!

She also likes to drink beer from her daddy as well and they like to sneak behind my back and when I turn around, she puts her finger over her mouth as if she say "sshh" it's a secret with her papi.

Jill dijo...

That's EXACTLY how it goes here, too! We just threw around the idea of my husband staying at home with Clara while I work. At first the idea seemed like a good one. Then I realized that he and Clara would be at home. All day. Alone. Together. What horrible things would he teach her?!? Normally, I try not to be a gatekeeper like that (and he IS great father), but I've seen what he lets her do! Yikes!

So here's hoping that it doesn't come to that!