"I was fain of their fellowship, fain / Of the live-oak, the marsh, and the main."

[larryhammer]

TBD is two years and four months old, and starting to hold converstations.

Baby's first invented story:

TBD: *points at night-light stars projected on the ceiling* "Moon help."
Janni: "Who does the moon help?"
TBD: "Trucks. Trucks ow {garble} moon help."
[Translation: The trucks are hurt and the moon is helping them. Yesterday, I was told about the (nonexistant) toy snail hiding in the laundry hamper, because it's dirty.]

TBD: "{TeacherName} [meaning "school"]. Baby cry."
Me: "Did a baby cry at school?"
TBD: "Yeah."
Me: "Did {Teacher} help?"
TBD: "Yeah."
Janni: "What did {Teacher} do?"
TBD: "Tow truck."
[Our best guess is that, if tow-trucks help cars, they can help others.]

Me: "We've got a little echo here."
TBD: "Echo here!"
[This would be our self-demonstrating statement.]

Janni: "Rain is coming"
TBD: "Yay puddles!"
[Indeed.]

Fewer I/you confusions, including starting to addressing people as "you" instead of by name. More adjectival sentences -- "It's X" instead of just "X." (Though we have to be careful: "Is helping" means TBD is helping out with something but what sounds like "Is help" means "Please help [me]" -- initial "pl" is a hard phoneme.) Still inconsistant about counting, the eight or so most important colors are solidifying, and more body parts have names. We can now sing along to most of the words to "Twinkle, twinkle, little star," "Baa, baa, black sheep," and the alphabet song (which really brings out how these are all to the same tune).

The game of Hide-and-seek has been discovered, though at this point TBD typically insists that other people do all the hiding. More imaginative and pretend games, mostly ad hoc. Blocks and Duplos are in vogue again, as are chase games. And getting swung up into the air and around.

Books with animals of all kinds, including bugs, work well with this child, as do do books with trucks. Pictures of animals hiding are especially enjoyed. That animals can get seriously hurt is being processed -- we keep returning a page with photos of dead owls in our field guide. But to be fair, books do well with this child -- the coffee table is out of control, for all that we we try to cull it down to the two dozen or so books in highest current interest, and piles still constantly topple over.

And really, the biggest development as far as we're concerned is that, when our Former Sometimes Roommate comes over for dinner, TBD eagerly helps walk her dog around the block, leaving us alone in the house for 20 minutes. By ourselves. Just us. Ahhh.

---L.

Subject quote from "Sunrise" from "Hymns of the Marshes," Sidney Lanier.

Comments

[hildigunnur.livejournal.com]

I'd say TBD is progressing well if something like the names of the colors are getting consistent with her.

[larryhammer]

Yes -- sometimes the answer takes a couple seconds to think of the right name, or even the wrong one, but corrected an immediate nod and repeating it: a sort of "oh, yes, yes, that one" sort of air.

---L.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I remember my daughter loved "Where's Spot" so much that all the little flaps hiding the animals turned soft and finally peeled away. The first couple of times she gusted with laughter.

[larryhammer]

We have a couple raise-the-flap books -- should bring those back to see how they play now.

---L.

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

We have a insect bucket-style sun hat for Reason, which she continues to like--but it appears to have been discontinued. (I am disappoint, Tilley.)

Yay, books and chasing and sense-making!

[larryhammer]

A hat with bugs on it would be awesome. Curse you, Tilley!

Last night, TBD liked chasing so much, she didn't even need chasing -- just ran back and forth across the house, with an occasional drive-by hug of someone's knees before squealing away.

---L.

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

:) That's exactly what we encourage Reason to do before bedtime when we're too tired to participate. Once in a while she "chases" my limp at put-put-put shambling speed.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Yay tow trucks!

[larryhammer]

Tow trucks help cars. Fire truck help people. The latter are more important/better, most of the time.

---L.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

If you do internetty things with her, she might enjoy a little Maru: hiding-in-boxes!

[larryhammer]

Indeed!

Especially combined with the Maru book, which we have.

---L.

[larryhammer]

"Kitty hiding!" *giggle squeal* "Kitty HIDING!"