Chatty Cathy

Jellbean is starting to talk more and more these days. I love listening to her ever-expanding vocabulary.

Yesterday she started saying "rabbit" and pointing to the ears on the rabbit in a book. It was perfectly enunciated, but since I always call it a bunny, it took me a moment to figure out what she meant. It was like my brain needed to catch up to the fact that my 20 month old was talking to me!

She's using two-word sentences, and assigning possessive terms to things - so I'm "Monkey's mommy" and our cat is "Monkey's Ollie," etc.

She loves to talk! (atta girl, that's my baby!) Combine that with her love of technology and every phone call becomes an excuse for her to show off.

Yesterday we got a spate of (wonderful!) calls from family and friends to wish Monkey a happy birthday. Monkey was being a bit of a stinker, however, and by the end of the evening she simply didn't want to talk anymore.

Jellybean? No such problem. She was chatting everyone up! She regaled Uncle N with "woof woof" and "roar" and "meow" and a variety of other animal noises. Then closed with "bye bye."

After Uncle N rang off, M actually said - out loud! - "maybe we should get her a phone"....of course meaning one that doesn't work. But really, there is NO way she'd go for that.

She's totally going to need a dataplan, dad, so she can text her friends. Like OMG, unlimited texting would be gr8!

Jellybean is pretty advanced, physically. She walked at 10.5 months, she dances and stomps her feet, she walks backwards for fun, and she RUNS. A lot.

But what she doesn’t do, much, is talk. She’s communicative, all right, but real words are slower for her than they were for her big sister, Monkey. She’s got mama, dada, bye, and a mangled approximation of kitty-cat. But that’s kind of it. Not so bad that we’re going to put her in speech therapy, but it’s definitely something I think about. (that damn mommy brain, I can’t turn it off!!)

Which is why, last night, I was thrilled to see her pull out the age-old favorite, “no.”

I know. I know. I’m going to rue the day she learned that word.

Still, last night it was a hoot.

Jellybean was (once again!) being naughty and fiddling with the electronics. I came around the corner and busted her taking the Xbox controller out of the cabinet, and firmly said “NO” to her. She jumped, tossed the controller in the direction of the cat (like hey man, I was just carrying it for a friend….), and ran to the couch on the other side of the room. You know, so she could pretend that she definitely, certainly, one hundred percent for sure was NOT just busted. No way.

Once there, she casually leaned against the couch, furrowed her brow, raised her hand with her index finder outstretched, and with a firm tone of voice shook that finger at me as she said “MO.” Twice. Like in case I missed the first time she scolded me.

I about fell over laughing. Funny kid. She hasn’t mastered the “n” sound, but boy can she do a spot-on impression of me!

Digital native

These days, there is a lot of talk about digital natives versus digital immigrants. As in, those that are born to it versus those that learn later in life. I am a digital immigrant. I only got a phone (and data plan) that could handle texting in any quantity because that's how my babysitters communicate. Now that I text I confess I really like it. But I had to be convinced.

Monkey and Jellybean, on the other hand, are bound to view texting as downright archaic by the time they demand their own phones: they are growing up with this technology and will never realize that life didn't always exist this way.

Kind of like when my mom would tell me the story of what a big deal it was when the first family in her neighborhood got a color TV. I was flabbergasted that TV had ever even existed in black and white! And somehow, putting a man on the moon always seemed like something that - of course! - we could do. Mind you I was born less than six months after that event...but to me, life had always been that way.

Jellybean is funny. Her temper tantrums in public almost always involve me denying her access to my phone or blackberry. When we were in DC back in December, we let her play with the DVD remote at the hotel because it didn't matter if she turned it on or off, it wasn't like the whole system would turn on (versus here, where we have one godwand with ALL the devices programmed into it). And even at one year of age, she'd hit a button, then turn and look at the TV expectantly...she knows how remotes work. (god I can hear myself now....Jellybean, I had to walk up hill both ways when I was a kid, and I even had to (the horrors!) get off my tush and go to the TV to change channels, can you believe it? Also, I had dinosaurs as pets, since I'm that old....)

Jellybean's love of all things electronic includes a blossoming love affair with the humidifier in our room. Even when we latch the door in a semi-closed position, she'll wiggle in between the door and the jamb, barely eeking through, so that she can go turn the humidifier on, then off, then on, then off....it's love, I tell you. In fact, anything that she can turn off or on is adored. And some toys? They're getting left behind....alas, no battery or electricity required.