And lo, the child speaks!!!!! Seriously, Allie finally started talking! It all happened starting about two weeks ago – but hey, better late than never, right?
[[image:20101122-15.jpg:Smiiiiiiiiiiiiile:center:0]]
The smile-grimace hasn’t changed though. 😉
So now, at 27 months, Allie has been actually speaking (intelligibly) for about two weeks. I guess something finally clicked, and instead of conversing with us in her own special baby language, she’s speaking. Real words! It is all very exciting. It started, as I said, about two weeks ago, after a bath while I was toweling her and getting her diapered and dressed, she pointed to her feet and said “Toe”. And she would do this consistently! And then she pointed to Vin’s hat and said “Hat”. And then it snowballed from there! The words she says now include:
* Body parts: Eye (said with a distinct southern accent), Telinga (which means ear, her first Malay word!), Mouth, Teeth, Eyebrow, Hair, Shoulder, Elbow, Hand, Toe, Knee
* Clothing: Hat, Shoe
* Colors: Red, Yellow, Orange, Purple, Green (all identified correctly!)
* Animals: Cat, Dog, Turtle, Owl (although she still tends to do the animal noises rather than the name of the animal itself)
* TV: Tuck, Ming Ming, Dora
* Toys: Ball, Balloon
* Number: Two, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten (the others are still works in progress)
Anyway, you get the gist. And every day brings new words and word combinations. I guess the thing about speaking so late is that since her comprehension-vocabulary is already quite large, it doesn’t seem difficult to now translate it to speaking-vocabulary. She is also putting her natural talent for mimicry to good use, mimicking everything we say and what she hears on TV. So seriously, Sila needs to stop swearing out loud, ASAP!
She now calls me “Nana” (instead of Mama) and Vin is “Dada” (instead of Papa), but she’s at least verbally calling to us now!
Besides this very exciting development, she is still her usual fun little person. She still sings like a dream and loves a good dance party. She still is the TV Dictator (and we watch a LOT of Nick Jr). Her ultimate favorite TV show is Wonder Pets. Vin and I have been DVRing this show so Allie can get it on demand. She is also very into her building blocks/lego-type toys, building more and more elaborate structures. We are finally completely over jetlag, and have just returned from our work trip to New Jersey (which is where this explosion of verbalization took place). Her hair is growing ridiculously long! And her canine teeth are beginning to pop through the gums (she’ll be ripping through a steak in no time, people!). She knows her shapes, and starting with that she now recognizes the letters O and Q and can point them out in different books and media. Hey, maybe she’ll be writing her own 28 month birthday blog! Ha! And while I keep questioning myself, and trying to make sure that I’m not trying to force this on Allie, it does feel like we’re doing the right thing and teaching her things that she seems interested in and going with her cues.
And she is growing like a weed! We have to provision her with warmer clothing for the upcoming winter months, and I think we will need to purchase 4-Toddler clothing to accommodate her (what might be looking to be Vin-like) height. She can still wear 2-Toddler clothes as she’s not big around the body area, however her hands and feet stick out a long way. Her 2-Toddler long pants look more like capris, halfway to her knees! She’s long-limbed, just like her Papa.
But enough with the chatter! Let’s get to the pictures of how the girl spent her 27 month birthday. Admittedly, a much less exciting day compared to her 26-month birthday with her cousin and uncle and aunt and grandparents and the zoo, but we still had fun. She starts out the day running around in her jammies:
[[image:20101122-01.jpg:Smiiiiiiiiiiiiiling gleefully at successfully climbing up the high stool at the counter:center:0]]
[[image:20101122-02.jpg:Handle the flying oink oink with care, please!:center:0]]
[[image:20101122-03.jpg:Baby animals:center:0]]
[[image:20101122-04.jpg:Looking up from her construction area:center:0]]
Then an outfit change:
[[image:20101122-06.jpg:Running around playing:center:0]]
[[image:20101122-05.jpg:Absorbed in the Wonder Pets:center:0]]
[[image:20101122-07.jpg:Pretending to nap:center:0]]
And then she came across this package – her Halloween costume!
[[image:20101122-08.jpg:What is this?:center:0]]
And of course she insisted on putting it on. So, sorry for the spoilers, but here she is running around as a lioncub:
[[image:20101122-09.jpg:Lioncub riding a vehicle (unlicensed?):center:0]]
[[image:20101122-10.jpg:Paws are hard to draw with:center:0]]
[[image:20101122-11.jpg:But bongo drums are not a problem:center:0]]
[[image:20101122-12.jpg:Felines chilling out together:center:0]]
Mama had to work, so Vin ran around snapping pictures of the girl all day. And then it was time for another wardrobe change:
[[image:20101122-14.jpg:No more lioncub:center:0]]
After a quiet but fun day, it was bath and bedtime for little girls. And she’s finally talking! YAYYYYYYY! I wonder what the next months will bring. Our little girl is definitely growing up too fast! See y’all next month!
[[image:20101122-13.jpg:Lioncub smiiiiiiiiiiiiile:center:0]]
