I have read/heard that after babies turn one, their abilities start to increase exponentially. With respect to vocabulary, I've read that a child can add 2-3 words PER DAY. Well, Mackey is just astonishing us with some new feats of cognition and vocabulary. Here are some tidbits:
Mackey has been saying "food" for the past couple of months. But she is now starting to discriminate:
"Bah-bo" for bottle
"what" for water
"sy-ur" for cereal
"chee-oh" for cheerio
and, today's newest: "ga-goh" for yogurt, which is DEFINITELY her favorite food
She also recognizes airplanes when they fly overhead and says "air-po." And she can tell you where the grass is, where the tree is, and that she loves the "fwowah" in the window boxes outside her window. And while she can say "ball," balls and balloons are the only things we've seen that she is actually afraid of (small balls are welcome, beach balls or big red bouncy balls are OUT of the question).
But she is not just learning these new nouns that help shape her existence. She is responding to all of the talking and singing that we've been doing over the last year. I sing to her all the time. Pretty much, if I'm talking to her, I'm also singing. For example, I have a song to sing when I'm changing her diaper (since she sometimes dislikes the bottom-baring routine). I basically take Steve Miller's "Big Jet Airliner" and change the lyrics. I have no idea why I am subjecting her to Steve Miller (why was THAT forefront in my mind?), but here's my version:
Big ol' wet soggy diaper
Get it off of my bum
Whoah-oh-oh
Big ol' wet soggy diaper
'cuz I really wanna have a dry bum
Yeah, yeah, yeah
So yesterday, I was singing this song as I changed her diaper, and when I got to the last line, suddenly Mackey pipes up "Yah, yah, yah!" I almost fell over. Seriously? Are you really singing the final lyric? I tried it again (thinking maybe it was coincidence), and Mackey came in right on cue. I even had Ashley verify later in the den as I sang the song in a different context (i.e. not while she was on the changing table). That proves how often I have sung this song to her...
Another thing she is mastering is Paddycake, or "PAT!" as she calls it. (I know I wrote about this in another post, but it bears repeating.) She does paddycake with her hands, her feet, and even the hands of her red Boston Red Sox teddy bear. It's fun to hear her say "Pat!" and then clap her feet. This afternoon, she picked up my shoes and started doing it.
Aside from vocabulary, Mackey is learning to try big people food with more frequency. We're trying to expand beyond the baby food (i.e. jars, cereals, etc.) and introduce new textures and flavors. First of all, Mackey really doesn't like anything slimy. When we first introduced her to scrambled eggs, she would EAT them, but she wouldn't TOUCH them. Wet, warm, slimy...when all you've put from hand to mouth is Cheerios, scrambled eggs would probably freak you out too. But now she's a pro. In fact, she eats an egg almost every day now. With other "slimy" foods, she is less consistent. I have her some sliced pears one day, and as soon as she realized the slimy white bits were sweet, she devoured them. Now, she doesn't show so much love for the pear. Nor does she appreciate cantaloupe. She did have fun mushing some blackberries all over her food tray...and her face...and her pants...just not quite INTO her mouth. Because Mackey really prefers dry, bread-based big people food, I've taken to dipping bits of bread into what I'm trying to get her to eat, then handing the piece to her, hoping some of it makes it to the final destination.
Tonight was a new adventure, and a success. I figured...hey, Mackey likes bread, and she does like meat...MEATLOAF! So I made a turkey meatloaf, and crumbled bits of it onto her tray. Upon first inspection, she was not excited. But when I gave her a bite from MY plate (she is still curious about what WE eat), she loved it. I just had to do some careful convincing that what was on her tray actually came from Mommy's plate. Between handfuls of meatloaf, I snuck in some grits (Mackey is a Texas baby after all). SUCCESS! She did so well, I even gave her some "ga-goh" for dessert, followed by some apple, steamed to mushy softness (not quite applesauce). She pushed the sweet goodness into her mouth, and I was ecstatic. It's funny to watch her test food with her fingers first--smushing it as if she's testing whether it will be mashable in her mouth. She held onto a green bean for about three minutes, clearly perplexed by its solid form. "What am I supposed to do with this?" she must have been thinking.
It's weekends like this that just give us pause as we reflect how AWESOME it is to be raising a beautiful, intelligent little creature. It is SO fun to watch her learn and grow.
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