The Children Speak

This is Judah today.

He is growing by leaps and bounds! He hands out smiles like they're free samples, and he is daily adding new words to his vocabulary. Heretofore, he has only said "Ooaahg," but today, he added "Googah" and "Aack." He delights us more and more every day as we see his effervescent personality emerge. His favorite trick: If you lean in close to his face, Judah will clasp his arms around your head. Pull away, and he flings his arms back, as if in a free fall, and he giggles. His second favorite trick is to roll over in his crib and play with his toes. Of course, then he's stuck, but just the same, the first 3 minutes of this trick is great fun. Sometimes all he wants to do is lay in his crib and giggle. Of course, he only has this opportunity when I lay him down for what I hope will be a nice nap, so I am sometimes frustrated by it, but sometimes, you just have to chuckle. He is!

This is Charis today.

While she is occasionally ta handful for me--i.e., when she takes Judah's pacifier for the umpteenth time and claims it as her own, even though she has not used a paci for months--she is ultimately a joy. Since our camping trip, her vocabulary has skyrocketed: before the trip, I kept a running list of her words as she added them; now, there is no hope for the list. I simply cannot keep up. For example, here are the words she added in the past couple of days--at least some of them: Pig, Boat, Pop, Four, Rock, Duck, Hair, Water, Walk, Hat, Rock...and those are the ones I can remember offhand. I have been growing impatient with her speech development, and would have been more worried about it, except for the fact that she understands everything she hears. I've just been waiting for her to learn the lyrics...

She has also started to speak in increasingly complex sentences. I thought the day would never come! Today, Judah was in the Exersaucer chewing on one of the toys, and Charis brought a blanket over to me and threw it over our heads.
"Are we hiding?" I asked.
"Yeah!" she replied.
"Who are we hiding from?" I followed.
"Baby, Mama!"
"Okay. Let's count: one, two..."
Coincidentally, I think, she continued, "...three, four, whee!" And pulled the blanket off of our heads.

She often says things like, "Read more! " and "More juice, please!" Today, she brought her cup to me and said, "please!" I was trying to engage a stronger sentence, so I asked leadingly, "Juice, please?" and she said, "No--POP!"

When I picked her up from the church nursery on Sunday, I began to carry her down the hall (it's just easier than chasing). "Mama, walk, please!" She begged.
"Charis, if you walk, you must hold Mama's hand. Agreed?"
She pondered this for a moment, then nodded, as if she was striking a bargain. "Yeah."

We were reading a book about Noah's Ark, and everytime she saw the ark, she said "Boat!"
Playfully, I'd say, "No, Charis, that's called an Ark. Can you say Ark?"
She's look me straight in the eye, as if I was trying to pull a fast one on her, and say very seriously, "BOAT."

That's all for today--I'm sure there will be more to come as the days pass!