2/11/07

Little Wordsmith


I know every mom thinks they have the smartest, cutest, best kid in the world – and I’m no different. M is at an age where she is constantly learning, and I am amazed. Kids like her truly are little sponges, soaking up everything (including things I don’t even realize).

Just for kicks, we started writing down the words that she consistently and correctly uses. In part, because we wanted to remember the way she calls a “jacket” a “jack jack” or a “slide” a “weeee”. As we recalled the words, our list got longer and longer. I transferred our frantic notes to an excel spreadsheet and to my surprise, she knew over 150 words! Granted, she cannot pronounce every word correctly nor does she use the right word in every case, but they are without a doubt all words to her. She uses the same pronunciation each time and refers to the same object or action with the same word. And those were just the words she uses consistently. She repeats many more words (including dang and crap…whoops!), but I don’t think she has mastery over them yet.

It’s amazing how those little brains work. I’ve listed a few of my favorite words below.
potty = “pah pie”
toothbrush = “teef”
amen = “aaaaaaameh”
where = “weh” (accompanied by her little hands facing palm up)

Photo: M on a cooler, 2007

6 comments:

L.L. Barkat said...

How wonderful... wonder full... I remember when my children were at this stage... you are wise to write things down (too bad I wasn't blogging then; maybe I would have done so!)

Katie said...

(crawling out of the darkness to comment)

Ok new mission: To get Maddy to talk to me :)

L.L. Barkat said...

just popping by to say hi! Hope all is well...

spaghettipie said...

LL - I try to record as much as possible, but then I'm also a pack rat! Thanks for stopping by. All is well now that we're on the mend.

Katie - Go for it. She talks all day long at our house, but when you try to get her to "perform"...

Marcia (MeeAugraphie) said...

It is awesome that you are writing this down. . . My mind was so scattered (still is a lot) back then, I barely kept records of anything. When I get frustrated with myself for not having written it down, I remind myself I was lucky enough just to have experienced the moments as they happened.

It is just that we forget unintentionally so many adorable, even heartwarming details. I hope people reading this follow your lead. It would make a great gift later for the child.

spaghettipie said...

Marcia - We try to record fun things like that. The real test will be if we actually do it for future children...