Chatter box

So, all non grandparents and non SLP's will probably not be interested in this post. However, this is the best way for me to keep up with all of Harper's developments. Harper is beginning to enter that 'language explosion' period. She is learning new words almost every day now. My favorite language development is that Harper (finally!) says 'mama' consistently!!! Not just when she wants to eat, but when she wants me to pick her up, when she just wants to see me, when she wants a kiss- she says mama! Yay! She also learned to say Poppa, which is what we call Jason's dad. Since he helped us with the yardwork she occasionally points to our new sod and says 'Poppa' as well! Usually she whispers it when she says it, which is so funny. She says 'go' all the time now. She uses it for different things, like when we are leaving daycare she usually says 'go!'. Then she says 'go' in response to 'ready, set...' when she goes down the slide. She says 'go' when we are grocery shopping when she thinks I've stopped the cart too long. So funny! She says 'hot' and 'hat' now. I don't think I've logged those before. She is so funny everytime she gets near the stove she waves her hand in front of her and says 'hot' with the final consonant! We have hats hanging by our garage door and she says 'hat' and touches her head which means she wants to put one on. She also tries to say 'War Eagle'. She waves her hand around in a circle in front of her and says "whoaaaaa"! She says 'shoe' very clearly now and labels any shoes she sees at home. She also likes to try to put our shoes on. She says 'yes' every now and then when we ask her a question but that isn't consistent yet. She now says no, too. My LEAST favorite word. Most of the time she says it to Toby. She actually spanked Toby one day after we had fussed at him for trying to eat Jason's dinner! We told her 'be gentle' and she petted him sweetly and hugged him. She also says 'nuh nuh nuh' if you pick her up and she doesn't want to be held. She said 'bus' yesterday when we left her daycare and she saw the bus they have parked there. She says door, but it sounds more like 'doh'. She has been imitating several two word phrases, as well, including 'go car', 'hi daddy', and 'close door'. She says 'hey' now when she picks up one of our cell phones and will whisper 'hey' while waving to people we see at the grocery store. She continues to be social and loves meeting new people. However, when in a new environment with lots of people she usually has quite the serious face and likes to just watch and observe for a little while before making friends. Physically she is now able to climb...anything. She climbs up steep stairs, climbs the ladder to her play set, tries to climb our bookshelf. She runs faster and faster each day (occasionally away from me!). She is still snuggly and still loves to eat everything. She still loves to read and in her favorite book (Hurry Hurry) she actually tries to read it out loud by herself and babbles the correct number of words and syllables per page (i.e. on the page that says 'Hurry, Hurry' she says /h^d^ h^d^/ and the page that says 'Ready? Read?' she says /rE^ rE^/). Sorry to those of you that don't know the IPA. It's fun to learn! I am so amazed by this little girl and my prayer is that I can be delighted in all she does and that in everything I do I can do it for God's glory. John Piper says even changing diapers. I'll keep working on that one! ;-)