Language Burst

Dude, when the parenting books warned us that around 18 months the language burst happens, they weren't kidding. In Sadie's case it arrived about six weeks ahead of schedule, and she's been going full bore ever since.

Aside from experiencing the beauty and excitement of realizing that everything in this world has a name, she's also beginning to remember the names for things that we've taught her in the past and is eager to show us that she knows them. So in one week she began to imitate horses, sheep, goats, birds, and all the animals she's been seeing in her picture books. She points at a bird on a telephone wire and yells, "tweet!" She points at flowers, balloons, a bottle, and says the correct word. When Jamie asked her what the kitty cat says, I was about to respond that she hadn't learned that one yet when Sadie assertively answered, "Meow."

"Mama" has become a command, of sorts. More comically, it's become a complaint: if we do anything that she doesn't like, such as taking her off the changing table while she's trying to look out the window or taking too long to put her jacket on, we get a litany of indignant "Mum mum mum"s.

Speaking of indignation, this is kind of her general attitude these days. Which is a nice way of saying that she's being a shit head. I'm sorry, but she is! The baby books call this a "negativistic" phase, and I see why. Oscar the Grouch is her role model -- she now enjoys being contrary just on principle. If you pick her up, she wants to be put down; if Daddy holds her she reaches out for Mom; if Mom takes her she squirms for the floor and if you put her down she cries piteously while reaching back up sgain. All of this is accompanied by what just might be THE MOST ANNOYING SOUND IN THE ENTIRE WORLD, EVER. There's no way to approximate it in text form but it sounds something like this:

"Eh Eh EH EH EH MU-HU-HU-HU-MUM EHHHHHHHHHHH."

The only person she reliably behaves for is Ana, her nanny. This past weekend she really put us through the ringer, but despite her moods we did have a really great holiday weekend, going to the park and taking Sadie to a wedding shower where she sat in one spot and studied some flowers on a branch for like forty-five minutes. Typical stuff. Scott cooked us breakfast in the mornings, making me even more sad about his upcoming 3 week business trip, and after Sadie went to bed we caught up on the new season of "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena." It's not really baby-friendly, that show. But it sure is fun!

No walking yet, but she is standing independently for longer and longer periods of time. My trick of praising the hell out of her every time she stands up seems to be working, because now she'll push off, look at me and be like, "See, Mom? Where are your squeals of joy??" Right now I'm trying a new strategy of teaching her to stomp her feet, to get her used to shifting her weight from one leg to the other, instead of just standing in place. It paid off last night when Scott and I watched her move her leg one teeny tiny step forward and then regain her balance.