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Dec. 4th, 2004 09:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckDelia gave me a really good memory for Tuesday, Nov. 2nd-- It was the first time she ever said "mama" to me. For a long time, she avoided words with m's in them. I think she couldn't quite manage them. Then, suddenly, she started using them. It feels good to have an identity, especially given that she'd been saying "daddy" for a couple of months.
She even said it with intent, clearly meaning me as opposed to just making random sounds as an experiment. Scott was holding her and pointed at me and said, "Who's that?" Delia looked gleeful and said, "Mama!" I was so proud!
Delia's language ability has continued to grow. At this point, I think she's learning a new word every day. She repeats a lot of words without really understanding what they mean yet, but she's got a solid core of words that she really knows how to use. We can tell when she adds new words to that group because she'll use them over and over again for several days. Right now, we're working on numbers and letters. Last year, Scott and I bought her wooden alphabet blocks. For a long time, all they were good for was dumping and kicking around, but now she picks up blocks, looks them over and informs us what the letter is. She doesn't seem to recognize the lower case letters yet, but she's got most of the uppercase letters down.
We didn't even realize she was learning her numbers until we realized that, if we said a number under 10, she'd respond, at least half the time, with the next number in sequence. Once I realized that, I started playing games around it. She and I can get up to 12 with me reciting the odd numbers and her saying the evens. The reverse doesn't work so well because she won't start the game. Sometimes I can get it going by saying, "Two," but not always.
We have, of course, called grandparents to show the new skill off. I only got my father's answering machine, but the other grandparents have heard and admired appropriately. (I remember reading, back before Delia was born, that grandparents are the only people who share parents' obsessive adoration of the family children, that they're the ones who will never get bored hearing about the cute/clever things the kids do or commiserating over the challenges of raising a particular child. I'm not sure where aunts and uncles fall on the spectrum of interest. It probably depends on whether or not they have kids of their own to distract them. We're all inclined to think our own children are better than those at a step removed-- Sons and daughters better than nieces and nephews, nieces and nephews than cousins children, and so on. Friends' children sneak into undefined categories, depending on the closeness of the friendship. Children one's close to are *always* smarter, cuter and so on than the children of strangers.)
She even said it with intent, clearly meaning me as opposed to just making random sounds as an experiment. Scott was holding her and pointed at me and said, "Who's that?" Delia looked gleeful and said, "Mama!" I was so proud!
Delia's language ability has continued to grow. At this point, I think she's learning a new word every day. She repeats a lot of words without really understanding what they mean yet, but she's got a solid core of words that she really knows how to use. We can tell when she adds new words to that group because she'll use them over and over again for several days. Right now, we're working on numbers and letters. Last year, Scott and I bought her wooden alphabet blocks. For a long time, all they were good for was dumping and kicking around, but now she picks up blocks, looks them over and informs us what the letter is. She doesn't seem to recognize the lower case letters yet, but she's got most of the uppercase letters down.
We didn't even realize she was learning her numbers until we realized that, if we said a number under 10, she'd respond, at least half the time, with the next number in sequence. Once I realized that, I started playing games around it. She and I can get up to 12 with me reciting the odd numbers and her saying the evens. The reverse doesn't work so well because she won't start the game. Sometimes I can get it going by saying, "Two," but not always.
We have, of course, called grandparents to show the new skill off. I only got my father's answering machine, but the other grandparents have heard and admired appropriately. (I remember reading, back before Delia was born, that grandparents are the only people who share parents' obsessive adoration of the family children, that they're the ones who will never get bored hearing about the cute/clever things the kids do or commiserating over the challenges of raising a particular child. I'm not sure where aunts and uncles fall on the spectrum of interest. It probably depends on whether or not they have kids of their own to distract them. We're all inclined to think our own children are better than those at a step removed-- Sons and daughters better than nieces and nephews, nieces and nephews than cousins children, and so on. Friends' children sneak into undefined categories, depending on the closeness of the friendship. Children one's close to are *always* smarter, cuter and so on than the children of strangers.)
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Date: 2004-12-05 12:48 pm (UTC)Of course, it's my job to exclaim loudly about all the ways in which she's very clever and generally let her know how wonderful she is. Since it's all true and I adore her, it's an easy job.
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Date: 2004-12-04 10:17 am (UTC)*hugs*
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Date: 2004-12-05 12:40 pm (UTC)BTW, you never got back to me on the question of file format or e-mail address for the Kenshin fic fragments...
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Date: 2004-12-04 02:07 pm (UTC)*laughs hard, smiles wryly* Truth! But then the current age of ones own child often affects how 'nostaligic' one gets about baby antics as well... or for the upcoming teen years in my case... The horror stories I sometimes hear serve to prepare? terrify? me for my own son's development. *laughs shakes head*
Kids of all ages are interesting to me -- maybe just for the comparison factor.
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Date: 2004-12-05 12:38 pm (UTC)I think most people are vulnerable to babies as long as they don't have to deal with spit up and dirty diapers. I think it's partly evolutionary programming and partly... Well, every adult I know, male or female, who has older kids has a sort of look of mingled regret and thankfulness when looking at a child noticeably younger.
I'm kind of scared of Delia's teen years. I've got a decade to wonder, but she's so strong willed now that I can imagine some major fights...
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Date: 2004-12-05 02:41 am (UTC)Yay Delia! :-)