Birdie's vocabulary grows every single day and it is one of the most exciting things to watch. I could have never expected how magical it would be to watch a child discover the world. Every single morning she runs into our bedroom chanting "ah where's a baby?? where's a baby?? where baby?" Once she is assured of baby's wellbeing she runs around looking for Belle and when she discovers her she yells "BELLE!!!" as if it is the very first time the two are meeting. Every. Single. Morning. She also demands "sacks" i.e., snacks, once we get downstairs and the rest of her vocabulary is reserved for all her favorite things: balls, her dog, cookies, socks, bottles and "ites" or lights.
I just recently scored this pretty printed top from J. Crew that I had been lusting over for months during one of their "extra 50% off sale" sales and wore it out for the first time this weekend. At one point Birdie was standing next to me and all of a sudden pointed to my blouse and yelled out "clock!!" Mind you the clocks on the blouse are teeny tiny and I would have never guessed that she could make out what they are but there you go! For the rest of the day she made it a point to remind me that I had clocks on my blouse.
Speaking of language development it has been over the course of the last month that papa bear and I realized that Birdie's tantrums and foul moods that we struggled with late this summer were directly tied to her inability to verbalize her needs and feelings. As soon as she could say at least half a dozen words we noticed a change in her - she was more relaxed, happy and much easier to communicate with. And the trend has continued, as she gains more and more vocabulary she becomes more reasonable and generally just more fun! I can't tell you what a relief it is to be able to go to a restaurant and not sit there anticipating a furious tantrum. Life has become much easier for all of us and I am so grateful for that, especially now that I have a newborn to worry about too.
"As adults, we (usually) don’t (audibly) freak out when we don’t get what we want or when somebody makes us mad because we can talk ourselves down. We can identify and label the emotion we’re feeling, which, research suggests, goes a long way toward quelling and controlling it. Our ability to label feelings stems in part from our excellent language skills, which young toddlers don’t have yet. Also thanks to language, as adults we can confront the people who are upsetting us and suggest solutions. My 22-month-old, though now very adept at informing me of his need for milk, doesn’t manage complex negotiations so well. His first response to frustration is generally to grab the nearest object and throw it across the room, which makes sense considering that his gross motor skills are among his strongest assets. If the only tool you have is an arm, you tend to see every problem as a potential projectile."
