Some Observations

Greta's language and creative play are each exploding right now. Every day she says something else that amazes me, or she puts together words in interesting ways to get her point across. And she plays in more realistic and fun ways, too. Here are a few examples . . . .

Greta says "not zip" instead of "unzip" and "not close" instead of "open". She is very into possessive form (she's two, right?) and likes to tell you exactly what is Greta's, Daddy's, and Mama's throughout the house. She still HATES getting her hair washed, so everytime we discuss bath time, Greta begins to say, "No wash hay-er". When we start putting pj's on, Greta begins a littany of "No Greta nite-nite". As we finish the last of five or six books before turning out the light, Greta starts saying, "One more".

Another interesting language development thing that I have noticed is Greta's discovery of the words used for different types of the same general thing. For example, for awhile she called all males - "boys". So when she saw a grown man in the coffee shop, she'd greet him with, "Hey, boy!" I'm not sure, "Hey, man" is better, but she has progressed now to understanding that girls and boys grow up to be men and ladies. That's about as far as we've gotten. Today she saw some very tall girls waiting for the bus, and she called them "ladies". Not sure what makes a lady versus a girl to Greta, yet.

I've been trying to get Greta knowledgeable on some basic safety information, and it's working like a charm. If I ask her her name, she says, "Greta Boof". Her city? "Sha-let." Her street? "Milllllin." What's daddy's name? Alternatively: "Paul" or "Daddy Boof". What's mama's name? "Tway-si". Interestingly, she doesn't give me the last name, Booth - - but she hasn't mastered Massey, either.

Counting is starting up now, too. It's funny that every time Greta counts anything, she uses the same tone of voice: very sing-song. One is "wwwwooooouuuuunnnnn" and two is "teeewwwww" and so on.

Greta also really picks up quickly now on how we respond to things. For instance, last night on the way home, we criss-crossed lots of beautiful neighborhoods in search of holiday lights. I guess I kept saying to Greta, "Ooooh, pretty" because for the rest of the way home that's exactly what she said every time she saw so much as a traffic light. And I think I must say, "Baby stuff" alot because every time we've made a run to Target during these last few weeks, Greta has said, "Baby duff, Mama?" as we get in the car. Same goes for "Christmas stuff."

Her play has also become so much more fun because of the words attached to it. Each night Paul and I spend about an hour and a half - the time between bath time and bed time - in G's room. We just let her dictate what we're all going to do in there. Most often, she chooses reading with us, but occasionally, she likes to play. Her most favorite play scenarios right now involve cooking soup for us and leaving her "house" or bedroom for work. The soup scenario has Greta putting little stackable toys (the bowls) on her dresser and adding spices and doing lots of stirring. She then serves up the soup to us and warns us that it's "HOT!". When she goes to work, Greta puts her purse on her shoulder, heads toward her bedroom door, says, "Bye bye, house" (which is what she and I say every morning as we leave the house) and then goes into the hall for a minute before returning to do that again and again.

Vitamins are another quirky ritual lately. Greta gets two gummy vitamins each morning. One she eats right away and the other she "yicks" (licks) until it melts. Sometimes I give her the vitamin at breakfast and she still has it by the time we arrive at her school!

And my personal favorite: "Ewwww, YUCK!" Anytime G sees anything remotely dirty or out of the ordinary, she says, "Ewww, yuck." The face that goes with that phrase is priceless, too.

I love watching her sweet little mind work it's magic in the form of all this play and language discovery. It's happening so fast that I fear if I don't write it down, I won't remember it in a few weeks, even. I wish I could capture little bits of her personality and put them in a bottle for future reference. I guess that's what videos are for!