Monday, July 9, 2007

sparrow's new words

i have to keep a list of the new ones she acquires, at least for awhile, because it is fascinating to me.

july 9th--

rock (she said it walking all the way back home from brandon school, and insisted on touching every rock in a little stone wall and saying "ock" as she pointed to each one.)

july 10--

truck

weekend of july 13-16

amen (she interrupted our prayer by saying "amen!")
kick
bike
light
tree
bite! (every time she sees us eating something she wants)
bible
hand

july 17--

boy

july 20--

wet

july 21-28th--

quack
pokey
cup
drink
bounce
food
book (not just the sign but the real word now!)

july 29th--

key
berry
wipe

july 30th--

tea
avocado (abcoco)
train
elmo
cookie (kickee!)

july 31st--

yucky

aug. 2nd--

blankie
pinecone
coffee
buggy
one
chicken

aug. 3rd--

hug (she started saying this awhile ago, actually, don't remember exactly)
bath
bowl
cracker
dog (for real--not just panting or barking or "du". she says "dogk"
chair
glasses (started awhile ago too.)

aug 5th--

wind
(this was completely amazing because she was just sitting eating lunch and she kept staring out the window at the tree waving vigorously outside. suddenly she pointed out and looked at me and said, "wind!" her dad teaches her well.)

she also now walks backwards in tiny little steps with this pleased, excited, mischevious look on her face, saying "back back back back" as she does so. haha!

it seems like she ditches the signs for things as soon as she has the word down. kind of a sad loss, but her talking is so cute that it's worth it!

aug. 6th thru 19th--

pen
sand
gate
swing
slide
skunk
cheese
hot dog
cereal
bucket
bathroom
towel
shoes
toes
hair
head
blanket
read
help
hard
puppy
bee
duck (full-fledged!)
on
go
out
bird
airplane (using 2 syllables now and is understandable as such)
train (she hears a train hooting in the distance and perks up and says "wain!")
spanking (beng-keng)
hole
muffin
butterfly (she has this elaborate sign for it and says "vwy!")
three

aug. 20th--

bread
toast
car
bottom
outside

she also said "rice" and "bus" today, but i don't know if i should officially include them, because she was copying us, and i don't know if she really knows what these words mean by themselves. all the other words i have up, she could say without prompting when she saw the object or action in question.

aug. 20th to sept. 19th--

sweater
hungry (she refers to the fridge as "ungy!")
bear (real word)
grape
shoe
necklace (real word)
potty
knee
dip
guitar
drum
turtle
yogurt
bag
rain
cow (real word)
toy
ring
paper
art
outside
leaf
walk
pancake
monkey
juice
milk
snake
booty
spider
buggy
wagon
foot
piggy (real word)
fishy (real word)
raccoon
bunny (real word)
spider
peekaboo (bookeego!)
star
two
abc
flower (r.w.)
gentle (r.w.)
bee (r.w.)
frog (r.w.)
sleeping
dinner
read
page
house
neck
dress
animal (aminau)
vegetable (sounds like "butterball!")

Thursday, July 5, 2007

sparrow's words

i want to start keeping a record of words sparrow adds to her vocabulary. i should have been doing this all along. what counts as a baby's first word anyhow? their first correctly-pronounced word, or their first recognizable attempt at a word? her first recognizable attempt at a word came at seven months, shortly after she had learned to crawl, i believe, which happened just before she turned 7 mos. i was showing her a rubber ducky, and doing the duckbill sign, hoping she'd catch on to the sign soon, as i knew she loved her duckies. but instead of signing, it, she just started saying "du-du!" one day. i was amazed. i was so amazed that i thought it was just a fluke, but when she kept doing it every time i would bring out the duck and speak and sign it, she would continue saying "du-du!" and to this day she still says it "duh!" words she can now say are:

duck (duh)
dadda
mama
dog (duh)(sign too)
wow
owl (ow-a)
banana (nana)
ball
water
apple
no (sign too)
hi
bunny (nanna) (sign too)
moon (nun)(sign too)
hat (sign too) (she pronounced it "ta" for a long time but how it's "hat")
hot (sign too)
button (don)
balloon (noon)
bye-bye
boo! (bo)
uh-oh
night-night
up
down
poopee (poopa) (sign too)
airplane (nana) (sign too)
octopus (ahpo) (sign too)
bed (ba) (sign too)
baby (bay bay)
ant
egg
clown (doun) (sign too)
sky (gy)

the last 11 or more were just acqquired within the last 2 weeks. she is saying a new one every day now.

and she has sounds or signs for at least 2 dozen other things:
clap
food/eat
nursing
phone
flower
book
sneeze
fishy (fishface)
pig
kitty
gentle
please
bird
horse
peekaboo
i love you
cow
sheep (she goes "heheheh!" for "baaaa" so cute. she sits there and 'laughs' at her book with all the sheep in it)
donkey
comb/brush
necklace
goose
bee/bug
motorcycle
sleep
driving
frog
bear
cold
monkey
lion


of course she can identify a bunch of other things such as: her nose, eyes, hair, ears, mouth, toes, shoes, porridge, sandwich, cereal, blanket, spoon, bath, door, window, etc. and knows pat-a-cake. she can do a bunch of faces on command: her first and most famous was "tigerface," at about 8 or 9 months, then came fishface around 10 months, and roller coaster face (my favorite) around one year. she also nods her head vigorously when we say "yes, mama!" or "rock n roll!" and knows what it is to go upside down and dance and bounce.if i say "pick up the crayon and put it on the blanket," she knows what to do. also "go give this to daddy."

anyways i don't know what they are supposed to be saying/signing at this stage at ALL. no idea. but i do think she is a genius.

Sunday, July 1, 2007

mama's sewing corner

i have been using our sewing machine and my precious evening hours of late to sew clothes for the baby... ok, ok, i wasn't really sewing clothes per se. not in the 1950s gingham dress-sewing sense. but a cape can count as clothes, too, right? can i win an industrious housewife award? yes. i was making sparrow a princess cape. it can even be attached to her onesie with snaps to prevent choking accidents. i had noticed a few times that sparrow was wrapping her blankie around her shoulders and traipsing about the house that way, but not only that: my pants, shirts, even my victoria's secret underwear were on different occasions worn by her as a "cape."


so---it was time to make her a cape, of course. i made it a bit too long, and not wide enough as it should have been--she can't really wrap it--so i'll have to make another one. but for now it still looks pretty dang amazing when she runs around trader joes in nothing but her onesie, cape, and huge sandals. sigh. so cute.



also, we had a heeeeelarious potty training incident this morning: sitting on couch in kitchen, sparrow pats her diaper and says "poopa!" i say, "we'd better take her; maybe she has to go pee again...?" (she says poopa for both functions.) thomas says, "you have to go to the toilet?" and we rush her to the bathroom. when we get her diaper off, thomas looks in her diaper and says, "hm, it's already wet, and...look, there's a little bit of poop in it..." well little sparrow is still standing there next to the toilet, and while he's analyzing it, she lets the rest of the poop out onto the floor! hahahaha, thomas was so shocked. so you see, young potty trainers out there, one MUST put the baby on the toilet immediately after removing the diaper! analyzing diaper contents can wait til later. baby bowels can't.

i think the hardest part about potty training is having the energy to consistently run the baby to the toilet every time they give their cue. because sparrow doesn't quite know yet, i think, that she is only supposed to say the cue before she actually needs to go. not just for fun or whenever she thinks about it or when she hears a toilet flushing. so i would seriously be putting her onto the toilet 20 times a day at this point. any advice from the veterans? i haven't read any books, just prayed about it, and it seems to be working alright. we don't even have her own potty for her, so maybe we should get us one of them and that way we can just buy pull-ups and she can take herself to the potty.