Yoving it.

Hmmm. A bit behind, eh? Let's catch up: Elle started a new daycare last week and is doing swimmingly, she's wearing size 8 shoes and we just returned from a 10-day trip that had us driving nearly 3,000 miles to, around and from Ohio (oh, and she and I drove up by ourselves and survived but very much welcomed Tim's participation as the main driver on the return trip). So. Now that we're allll caught up, I present a story from our travels that actually extends beyond them - one that I was reminded of when Meghan posted this about her son.

Elle has always been an excellent communicator. Every time someone comments on how well she speaks for her age, I say "Yes, she started early and took off from there!" She's always spoken very clearly, too, aside from a few  short-lived misprounciations, like one that makes me smile any time I think of it - she called my friend Lara's husband "Mr. Wob." As in, "Mr. Wob was home today." Except his name is Rob. Too cute, right? She also has a cute way of saying "Noffing" for nothing. Amazingly precious.

But anyway, when we were in Ohio, my family picked up on an adorable speech slip-up that Tim and I had pretty much just accepted and love: Elle can't say the soft "L" sound, a fact that has prompted my dad to tell me countless times that it's cruel we named her "Elle" and she can't say that very letter. She can say her name without problem, and even proclaims the spelling on occasion: "E-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L. That spells Elle!" (Close, kid.)

Elle does not yike the cold weather in Ohio.

We've gotten very used to Elle saying "I yike it," "I yove you," and "Where's my yunch?" Some times she asks to have a "yittle" bit of something. Then there's the more complex "piyyow" for pillow, "catepiyyow" for caterpillar and the "yeyyow" for yellow. Overall for a two-year-old, she speaks very clearly, and I love (yove) the way these more babyish words sneak in to her otherwise sophisticated diction.

Things got pretty funny once the whole family picked up on it. Elle noticed that we were all laughing at one point on Thanksgiving day, and I told her I was sorry we were making fun of her speech impediment. Clearly, she said, "I don't have a speech impediment." The kid repeats almost everything, and most of it she repeats perfectly, but in this case, it was more hilarious than usual.

Working on some Christmas yights with Grams.

The fun continued throughout the trip. We enjoyed looking at all of Ohio's Christmas "yights." My mom has a stuffed, electronic cat that looks a lot like Baby, the cat they have. The toy cat's name? Lulu. So when I asked Elle if she wanted to play with Lulu, I got a curious "Yuyu?" in return.

Yucky the Kitten.

Tim's mom has a new kitten. When I texted my sister to tell her about it, I said "Get this - the kitten's name? Lucky." It took my sister about 30 seconds to write back and say "Oooooooh. Yucky?" I heard Elle and Grandma talking about it one morning, and Grandma told Elle that Lucky was a lucky ducky because she had found her when she'd been abandoned on the side of the road, skin and bones and all alone. Elle said "Yucky ducky?" Later that afternoon, I told Elle that she was lucky to be getting a cookie after lunch because she'd already had some candy as a treat. Thinking I was calling her the kitten's name, Elle said, "I not Yucky, Mommy."

I am going to miss this yittle speech hiccup when it's gone.

I'm sorry, you said what?

It struck me recently - Elle is speaking in complete sentences.

WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?!

The first solid phrases I can pinpoint are of a similar theme. There was the peek-a-boo parroting of "Where's Elle Belle?" But now she's taking it to a higher level - she's been saying "Where did *insert person/animal/thing here* go? Where is he?" for a few days. It's especially cute when she is talking about Tim, Santa or one of the cats. The other day, Elle and I took dinner to Tim, who had a hectic night of work ahead of him. As we pulled away, I heard Elle quietly calling "Daddddddyyy. Where did he go? Where is Daddy?" The enunciation isn't crystal clear, but it's definitely clear enough. (And makes me want to melt, but that's beside the point.)

Then she added the cats. "Where did Sidney go?" she'd say as she put her hands out and started walking around the condo to hunt him down. There's been "Saaaaannnnnaaa. Where did Sanna go?" She threw that one out minutes after flipping out when she visited Santa this year - I told her that it was obvious she didn't care where he was when he was trying to talk to her, but she ignored me. 

And then another favorite that started this weekend: "I see Elmo. Where did he go?" The way she asks it - like her heart is breaking because she doesn't know where in the world Elmo went (Elmo being "present" in book or Target ad form) - is absolutely adorable. (More on another one of her favorite sayings in an upcoming post in which I realize what a terrible role model I am.)

But peeps. She's stringing stuff together. Aware that she's unaware of the whereabouts of certain people. FREAKING FIGURING STUFF OUT. I'm pretty sure she'll be answering the phone and taking messages before the end of the year.

Wordful Wednesday: Elle's vocab

In the last 48 hours, Elle has picked up several new words, including apple, potato, onion (thanks, Kelly, for the plastic fruits and veggies!), belly, happy (she has been going around saying "appy, appy" all day) and a strong attempt at the word flower.

I seriously can't get over how fast she's picking up new words. There is definitely some confusion on the meaning of some words (she curled up with her blankie and said "nigh nigh" - when I asked her if she loved her blankie she made monkey noises). But this girl? Such a little parrot. And a smart one, too - she's constantly pointing at things and repeating us over and over.

Here are two of her other recent acquisitions, on video:

Banana (or "manana"):

Cookie (of course shoving the whole thing in her mouth):

Chatterbox Sillyhead

I've got several posts in the works, but I'm feeling a light-hearted, multimedia vibe right now :)

As I mentioned before, Elle is talking. She's been saying (and in some cases, whispering): Hi, Dada, kee kee (for the kitties), baby, mama (usually just when she's mad, but now sometimes when she sees the mom and baby on a big box of diaper wipe refills), bye (more on this one below), and then other noises that sound like "yay" (when we clap and cheer) and "no" (when I tell the cats "no"). Very, very cute. She also likes to sing the "E-i-e-i-o" part of "Old MacDonald" with us - my mom heard her singing on the phone today, and it was pretty cool :)

But anyway.

I haven't shared many videos of Elle on the blog lately - they've been posted to our Shutterfly site and/or Facebook, but here is one of her whispering "hi" and waving - at herself, but waves nonetheless (apologies for the odd angles and poor camera work):

Here is Elle making silly faces as she knocked her sippy cup over and threw fish on the floor. She started waving "bye" that day, and I truly think that was the first time she said "bye," too:

Here is the world-premier video of Elle being ridiculously silly today - she kept giggling every time I bumped her butt and said "Bump set spike!" It was an infectious kind of belly laughter, and she kept it up for about 10 minutes - what a silly, silly girl :)

Again, never-before-seen footage:

We have words!

I'm not shouting this one from the rooftops yet, but we have strong reason to believe that Elle said her first and second words today - the strong reason being we were both there and heard her :)

We often call Elle "Baby." Tim was getting Elle ready for church and said something to her like "Are you ready to go to church, Baby?" I was in the kitchen, and they were in the living room, and I heard two definite syllables: "Bay-bee." Tim paused, and said, "Can you say 'baby'?" And Elle repeated: "Bay-bee. Bay-bee."

It makes sense to us - "baby" is probably one of the words we use most frequently around her, from her nicknames ("Baby," "Baby Bear," "Baby Boo," etc.) and just general "the baby just pooped" and "can you put the baby in the car seat" comments and questions. She repeated it a few more times throughout the day, too.

A little bit later I asked Elle if she could say "Dada." I didn't expect anything. I figured one word was enough for our chatterbox. But she looked at me and whispered "Da-da." After church, Tim put Elle in her crib for a nap, and we crashed for a bit, too. When she woke up about 50 minutes later, I brought her in to our room, and we dozed some more. When she and I started to wake up, in that groggy, sleepy state, she rolled over and faced Tim's back. I asked her where Dada was and told her to wake him up. She started quietly saying "Da-da. Da-da." And patted him on the back. (I have no idea why "Dada" can only be whispered, but I guess it's better than yelling, right?)

This all reminded me of a conversation Tim and I had recently where I told him that the babysitter said Elle babbled all the time. Tim said, in standard sarcastic-Tim style: "Gee, a kid of yours, talking all the time? So hard to believe."

Sigh.

It was made especially cool because we were both there to witness/hear the milestone. So far we've been pretty lucky on catching the "big moments." And honestly, I don't think we would have believed it if we both hadn't been there to hear it.

Of course, when I asked her to say "Mama," which she has babbled numerous times, she looked at me seriously and said "Ob gibby dew do nana quibby bwa bwa."

Grrrrr.

But yes, I know, I know, I need to get the words on video. I'll see what I can do :)