Learning Names

I don't know if Alia finally just got old enough to start talking, or if being with Lydia several times recently gave her the incentive to speak up. But boy oh boy, she's doing a good job of using verbal language instead of just sign language or pointing!

One fun experience was when Nathan was trying to get her to say "Yes." She really likes the word "No." Katie said Alia carefully practiced the word "No" with her toys so that she'd be an expert at saying it to her parents. And believe me, she was quite adept at saying "No" with all clarity! That one morning, Nathan said "Yes" and Alia said "No," back and forth, back and forth. Silly Grandma sang a tweaked Beatles song: "I love you YEAH YEAH YEAH; I love you YEAH YEAH YEAH; I love you YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH." Pretty soon, she's saying "Yeah yeah yeah." Never one "yeah" -- always in triples. Funny and smile-inducing! But it did cross our minds that we needed Victor (from Miss Congeniality) to teach Alia to put an Sssss on the end of her "yes."

When she moved here, she'd already been saying Momma and Daddy clearly for quite a while. Gumpa was the first name she used for one of us here. But then Andrew was called Gumpa too. I figured it was a generic word for Adult Males In The House Who Are Not Daddy. But then she called me Gumpa a few times too. Hmmm; do I look that masculine? She tried an abrupt grown-up-sounding "Mum" on me twice, both times in the wake of hearing Maggie, Andrew, and Katie call me "Mom." We think there's a name for Maggie -- something on the order of Aggie. When Matt and Rachel visited on Sunday, she learned "Mott" very quickly. Last night Nathan said she came up with a "grandma"-sounding word and then tore down the hallway to attack me in the kitchen, so I may have a name soon too.

It's so much fun to watch a kid during his language acquisition! Last week, when we first realized that Alia was beginning to copy almost any word we would tell her to say, Andrew decided to teach her to say "robot." Robot? Ah, come on! If you're going to teach her words, teach her something good, something useful! So the next thing I hear from around the corner: "Alia, say 'justification.'" (Can you see me rolling my eyes??? LOL!)