Out of the Mouth of The Babe

Maddie could speak in complete sentences by the time she was two. She was an early talker. But Leah puts Maddie's accomplishments to shame. Leah speaks in paragraphs. She does not allow anyone to speak for her. Although Max claims to speak, "Leah" and tells us what she wants. Nevermind the fact that she already tells everyone what she wants.

So if you were ever wondering what a 21-month old thinks, here it is. Some of our favorite things she says are, "Go away. Please go away." Yesterday I found her in George's room. I said, "Come downstairs. Julie is coming." She responded, "No, I play in Bubby's (her nickname for George. All you Diary of a Whimpy Kid fans might get it) room. Go away. Shut the door."

Her greeting to anyone who comes in the door is, "Phone," with her hand held out expecting them to give it to her. Her favorite phone is Julie's phone. It has apps that are amazing. So I prepped her for Julie's birthday. I told her to sing Happy Birthday to her. She agreed. But when she saw Julie, her instincts took over, and she could only say, "Phone." And Leah is very good at navigating the phone. Her favorites are iPhones. She told Ben she didn't like his phone (a blackberry). She plays one game on Cara's phone and hands it back. Becca is a little more cool now that she got an iPhone for her birthday. And she knows which phones have which apps. She has even tried buying apps, but she doesn't know our itunes password, thankfully. She searches through pictures and plays videos. She knows the youtube icon and plays her favorite videos, which are Elmo videos. She matches and counts along with all the apps. I would post a video of all of this, but I can't get my phone away from her long enough to video her. I never thought I would have to give my one-year-old time limits on the phone, but it is happening.

And one-year-olds pick up everything and remember more than we give them credit for. I was putting ointment on her rash on her tummy. She giggled and I said, "Tickle the tummy." She said, "I love Tammy." I said, "You love your tummy?" She said, "No, I love Tammy." And when she woke from her nap yesterday she asked for Becca. Everytime she sees Becca she says, "Becca cut my bangs." We were looking at blogs and she said, "Jane and Jack. Julie. Terrell." Then I said, "Let's look at Baby Stella." She replied, "Yes, and I'll say, 'oh Cute!'" Which she did. When she saw the pics of Stella, Jenni, Jared and Santa she said, "Stella. Jenni. Terrell." I said, "That's Jared." She stared at me confused. Then I realized she was looking at Santa. So I guess Terrell resembles Santa a bit. I said, "No, that's Santa Claus." She did seem relieved and said, "Santa Claus. Santa Claus."

Leah's favorite things are birthdays. We've been celebrating quite a few lately, but she keeps talking about Russ blowing out the candles. And she sings to Russ while walking around the house.

We finally got some snow that didn't melt immediately. Not a lot, but enough to play in for a bit. She went out to play with Maddie. Maddie got tired and brought her in. Leah asked me to take her out. I said, "No." She immediately turned back to Maddie with a big smile, "Maddie play in the snow, please?" She knows how to get what she wants.

She looks at her toe and says, "It's getting all better." Now she has a hurt hand. She looks at her hand and says, "Mommy put the bandage on. It's like a blanket (I had to put thick gauze on to soak up all the blood)."

All in all, I've discovered that one-year-olds think a lot. Or at least this one does. And I've learned to be careful of what I say, she repeats it all.