February 1, 2010 - Talking

Grace was not an early crawler and will not be an early walker. She tends to be right on the mark for "average" for most developmental milestones (although do remember she rolled over on the sofa at 3 weeks old), which is perfectly fine for us. BUT we do think she is quite verbal for her age. Have we ever had a baby before? No! So be warned: this could be just more of "first time parents thinking their baby is incredibly brilliant but really their baby is actually just like everybody else".

This weekend Grace was really trying to say some new and interesting words, and was pretty successful. Rewind a little bit to note that she could already definitely say Mama, Bye, Hi and consistently make the right noise (woof woof) for a dog. Her attempts this weekend were so clear that we actually knew what she was saying, if not perfectly:

• water = "wa" (said while trying to make the sign for water and pointing to her cup)
• cheese = something that sounds like "chs" (repeatedly said pointing to the cheese that Kristoffer was eating because she wanted some too)
• flower = flow (pronounced like the actual word minus the "er", while pointing to flowers all around her)
• ball = pretty much "ball" exactly

AND...are you ready for this one?...

• Jesus

Yup. That's right. Kristoffer was giving Grace a bath last night and she was playing with her Fisher Price Little People Nativity Set (we're not exactly sure how the religious people became her bath toys, but they did). After first drowning Baby Jesus and then throwing him across the bathroom, Kristoffer was trying to teach her to be gentle to him. He has been doing this for months: rubbing the cheek of fill in the name of the toy/stuffed animal/real life person and saying "a-ay...a-ay..." in a gentle way. So when Kristoffer was doing this Grace took Baby Jesus back from him and pet him lightly saying her version of "a-ay", which was more like "ah-ah". Kristoffer was very proud of her for doing this and said something about being nice to Baby Jesus. Then Grace said what sounded like "Jshus". I was brought in for a consultation after she said it a few more times because he just couldn't quite believe it, and it DEFINITELY sounded like the real name to me too. Although I do admit that her version of "cheese" and "Jesus" sound similar, we think it is pretty amazing that she is actually starting to talk.

She is often trying to make the sounds of various animals: "moo" for cow, "maeh" for sheep and lam (Danish), "øf øf" for pig (Danish), "pip pip" for various birds and also "vruum" for things that go like cars, bikes, planes and trains. Kristoffer hopes that some more of her words come out in Danish (her "Jesus" was definitely a mix of how it is said in both languages); in fact, when she started saying "cheese" Kristoffer was really pushing for "ost"!

We are very curious to hear what she'll say next.

Sorry if this is the most boring blog you've ever read...but we are really impressed!

LMW