Anjali Sage: "Beebee" and Other Tidbits

The process of learning language is so fun to witness! And the quickness with which it happens is astounding. One night recently I jotted down a list of things just so I wouldn't forget to share them here ~ it all happens so fast!

It is also fun for us because Anjali has such fun with it. I can tell that, as she says a word over and over, she is so pleased with the process. Here is a list of words that Anjali is incorporating into a vocabulary:

Oppuh- apple

Boopboo - poopoo (this has changed; she now says "poopoo", with her lips puckered quite adorably, I must admit..)
Letty - Kitty
And she also makes the "ssss" sound that we associate with going peepee (she's made that for a few months, if I forgot to mention it..). For anybody going peepee.
Moo has been added to her repertoire of animal noises.
Deet ( with a big smile) - date
Pwoh - pillow
Deese- teeth (pointing to teeth)
And her favorite : beebee - baby. This includes children, too; she points to children in books and says, "beebee!"

Another aspect of communication that I think is fascinating is that she makes sound effects. Zjjzzjjee ~ is her sound for zippers (when I zip anything up, I say, "Zzzzzip!"). Yesterday as a way to request that her boots be taken off, she pointed to the zipper on one and said, "Zjjzzjjee!" She has pointed to a fan and imitated its noise, the immersion blender, coffee grinder...

And sign language continues to be so much fun. We have added the sign for orange ~ like you're squeezing an orange in front of your mouth, and we made up a sign for kombucha ~ making the letter "k" and pointing it to your lips.

She is making the sign for milk ~ like squeezing an udder (she just waves her hand in a certain furtive way), and cheese ~ pressing and swiveling the hands together as if in the process of pressing cheese.
She also invented her own sign for cats, after seeing me snap my fingers to correct something Rodolfo was doing ~ she rubs her index finger and thumb together as if to snap as she is saying, "Mooowww!"

She points at things in order to have me tell her the word for them. For instance, she has a puzzle (still in the shrinkwrap) that has all these little photos of children's and babies' faces, ears, noses, elbows, etc., and then has the word that describes the photo. She sits me down with that puzzle and points to one after the other, and has me say the word. She tries to point to the body part on herself. "Nose" is the one she has dialed-in. She likes to point to every nose she sees, and then to hers (she actually usually sticks her finger *up* her nose. Ha! When we Skyped with Grandad recently, she did this. Then she attempted to point to Grandad's nose and smeared the screen with a fingerful of gooey treasure!). The body parts she has repeated after me are "knee," and "elbow" ~ "ehhwboh." So fun!

When she is not picking out and walking around in shoes, as she says, "shoooz!" or "choooz!", Anjali is looking at books or asking us to read with her. Often I have heard her in the other room singing and talking. When I look in, she has surrounded herself with a floorful of books and is looking intently.

Favorite foods right now: scrambled eggs are the most eaten mealtime food - both for quantity and frequency - along with bacon, although she usually just chews on that for a while and spits it out. Kinda like gum.. She always likes a spoonful or two ~ or four ~ of sauerkraut. And hotdogs. Dates are her favorite snack of the moment, and yogurt is her favorite art medium. ; ) She can't get enough homemade kombucha, and she drinks a cupful or two of raw whole milk quite often. Anjali also likes cheese and butter. The other day she asked for seconds ("more" hand gesture) when I gave her her dose of cod liver oil. !

And here's a photo, as dessert for reading all that writing. ;-D