Say My Name

I am not sure whether it's considered a developmental milestone or not, but Marty and I think it's the most exciting to happen since she learned to walk: Ellie can say her name! Well, it sounds more like "Eh-wee" than Ellie but the point is there. L's are hard to say. In fact, just this past week it's like something has clicked in her brain with the whole speaking thing and she's suddenly saying a lot more.

She's saying "mommy" very, very clearly. She's been saying daddy for quite a while now, but she always called me Mama until this week. Trouble is though, now that she's got the hang of "Mommy" she wants to use it indiscriminately. She calls me Mommy, but also uses it as a term of endearment for her father and her grandparents (and sometimes our neighbors and complete strangers). Not really sure what that's all about but for now it's sort of cute and hopefully it will pass so she won't go around calling every stranger that walks by "mommy " until she's 7, because that would be potentially embarrassing. She has also begun filling "Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy" in for words that used to be in her vocabulary like "up" and "down" and "out". I am beginning to understand why people say that your child learning to speak is a mixed blessing.

Additionally this week, she busted out with "Myles" (our neighbor's child), "empty", "Elmo", "Abby", "Grover", "more", "back" and the cutest one: "thank you" (She says "Tank too" when you hand her something, or if she hands something to you. It's really adorable.) It's surprising that so much of her vocabulary consists of Sesame Street characters, especially since she gets about 30 minutes of exposure to the show a week (and had never even seen it at all until about 3 weeks ago) and only has one Sesame Street book, but I guess there's a reason that they are such popular children's characters. They know what children love and seriously deliver! I think it's hilarious that she will point out Elmo and Grover again and again in her "Hide & Seek, Near and Far" book (sort of like Where's Waldo) but you ask her "where's the pig" in the animal book and she completely ignores you, as if to say "The pig is the only thing on the page, Mommy, I will not condescend to answer your ridiculous question". She knows what a pig is but it's not as challenging as finding the allusive Elmo or Grover in the maze of craziness in Tibet, and I guess my girl likes a challenge.

Also for a few weeks now, she has been mildly obsessed with babies. She points to every child (in person or in a magazine or picture or diaper box) she sees under the age of three and screams "BABY!" like it's the coolest thing that ever happened to have stumbled upon a baby (even though there happens to be an abundance of children in places we go, like the playground, and we have pictures of babies all over the place so she is screaming BABY about every four seconds). I guess she doesn't realize that half of the kids she's calling baby are probably older than her, but whatever. In fairness, at least she refers to herself as a baby too. She even points to Marty sometimes and calls him baby. I am not sure what's worse, calling her father "mommy" or "baby" but it seems like "daddy" is now passe. I am sure he's hoping it will make a comeback soon.