I just wanted to post a few unrelated stories about Lara’s language acquisition of late. Misha and I are getting such a huge kick out of her these days.
Yesterday we were walking through a store where one of the aisles was littered with unshelved products, and Lara pointed at it and said, “mess!” I was totally astounded. How does she know that word? She is constantly surprising us with her amazing recall of words that I guess she has picked up, but that certainly haven't been used by anyone in a while. So fun. Similarly, today she determinedly picked up the TV remote, aimed it at the set (which we always keep unplugged unless watching a movie), and after pushing various buttons, yelled out “On! On!” We knew that she uses the words “on” and “off” for clothes and shoes, but it turns out that she knows it for electronics also.
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I love how engaged she is in all conversation going on around her, even when she seems totally engrossed in something else. She was sitting on the couch and reading a book while I telling my dad on the phone that Lara had fallen off the coffee table. All of a sudden in the middle of my story, she looked up, pointed to the place where she had landed and said “Fall. Head,” and rubbed her forehead where she had scraped herself.
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She is slowly building up an arsenal of verbs. Nouns came first, as only makes sense, followed by a few concrete adjectives. Now we have various object-manipulation actions: “drop it”, “hold it”, “pick it” (up)”, “give it“, and “keep it” (as in, don’t take it away from me). She always uses the it-pronoun construction, and mostly likely thinks it’s all one word. I love it.
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Mostly what I love though is that she tries to use language not just with adults but with other kids too. She is starting to get over her terror of other children (we’re all very exciting that the phase of horrendous screeching any time another kid came near her seems to be at an end. Boy was that fun on the playground.) Today, a little boy waving a big stick around came too close to her, and instead of running away or screaming, Lara pointed at him and said, “Boy. No. No.” His dad and I were laughing. A couple of days ago, at one of my MOMS Club get-togethers, she actually negotiated for a toy another girl was holding by asking, “Turn?” We’ve been working on the concept of taking turns, and she is really into it. I’m actually fairly amazed at how well we can reason with her, and how readily (for an almost-two-year old, especially!) she accepts logic.
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I know, I know - where's the picture? Hey, I'm tired.
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