Baby Talk

I walked into the den with morning with Ella on hip and DeLaynie alongside. I did what I always do and started the dvd player and turned on the t.v. I let the kids watch a movie while I wake up well enough to deal with things like parenting. The dvd was left in the same spot that it was when Edwin turned it off yesterday. It was a Dora dvd, and they were just about to sing the backpack song. Ella got one good look and started saying, enthusiastically, "Ba-pa! Ba-pa!" She then "sang" the backpack song. Every once in a while, she forgot what she was doing and started saying, "Da-da. Da-da?" Then she heard the backpack singing his own praises, and went back to the "Ba-pa, ba-pa," routine.

My 11 month-old Ella is impressing me. She's also been saying tank-ou (thank you), bye-bye, mama, daddy, uh-oh, and pwease (please). I think she may have been secretly benefiting from all of the speech therapy DeLaynie has received. Maybe she has a special gift for language, which would come in handy as a missionary kid.

We've been trying to get Ella to walk. She doesn't want to. I used to think that she was desperate to be like her big sister, but now she doesn't seemed too concerned with emulating her in that area. DeLaynie will stand in front of her and yell, "Come on! You can do it! Walk! Walk! You can do it!" It's a very sweet image. (DeLaynie is a great big sister.) From what I've heard, babies either work very hard at developing language, or they work very hard at developing their gross motor skills, so I guess she's focusing on the language. We're still going to encourage walking, though.

Well, I think my little chatter box is hungry, so I better go make her some grits. I've had my fill of bragging for the day. You are now free to think about things like your own children. Tank-ou for the indulgence.