Language Explosion

Grace will be 18 months old on Monday. CRAZY! I can't believe I've been blessed with my precious little Goo Baby for a year and a half. And she's barely a baby anymore! She's kind of a Goo-Girl these days! She's getting to the point where I can see the language explosion coming on quickly. Lily was a pretty early talker, and by 18 months I think she had a few more words under her belt than Goo does. However, Grace is incredibly smart and capable and shows it in different ways. For example, when Lily was that age, she loved to look through books, but when I asked her to point to this or that, she rarely ever did. I could never tell if she wasn't learning things, or if she just didn't feel like pointing out what she knew. Grace, on the other hand, loves to point out what she knows. She loves all the baby board books with the pictures, and she'll go through and point to everything and show you that shoes go on your feet and that sort of thing. And like I said, she's starting to repeat more and more words. Many of them sound essentially the same, but that's pretty much how it goes with babies.

I kind of wonder why her language is developing differently than Lily's did. Is it a personality thing? Is it that I spent more one-on-one time with Lily? Is it that Grace developed a love for books later than Lily did, and so didn't learn all the words for things as early? Who knows! But she's definitely coming into her own now.

Grace has always been a good communicator, even non-verbally. For example, today I'd set the girls to play in Lily's room while I showered. I'd brought few of the Christmas toys that had been downstairs up to Lily's room for them to play with. Well, after lunch Grace marched herself right up to Lily's room and pointed to the toy I'd brought up earlier, and then pointed out the door. It was obvious she wanted me to bring that toy back downstairs for her to play with. No words necessary!

She also wants to do anything Lily is doing. She follows Lily around and plays with whatever toys Lily is playing with. If Lily gets ketchup for her hot dog, Grace must have it as well. If she sees that Lily has her watch on, she points to her own wrist and fusses. She'll even copy Jim. When Jim pushes his sleeves up to his elbows, Grace does the same. She's pretty hilarious.

So here's a little video showcasing some of Grace's verbal triumphs. I should have had her say "no no no" because it's pretty much the cutest thing in the world.