Bethany is blowing away the average age for words by using "Da Da" and "Ma Ma" regularly. She also loves her feet on the changing table and tries valiantly to say "Feet" every time she plays with them. At first she was happy just to get out something like, "geht." But when I started to show her the "F" sound, she started blowing on her lips a little differently from just the play blowing--trying to make that "F" sound. Then she finishes with the "geht." It is very cute. Other than that she communicates very consistently in other ways. When she wants something pretty badly she sticks her hands out to the side and wiggles them. Sometimes she cries when she wants to get out of bed, but mostly she just makes all her noises over and over until someone comes to get her.
Jacob is, of course, talking just fine for a three year old. He is to the stage, though, that his little mispronunciations are so cute. I have to stop myself from admonishing Naomi when she tries to correct him. Some of my favorites are "Yogrit" (yogurt), "Nuffink" (nothing), "Opie meal" (oatmeal), "mecinine" (medicine), "Whitening the Queen" (Lightening McQueen) and "Ball-E-Ball" (volley ball). Until recently he called Naomi "Nah-nee," but when she started consistently protesting, he began saying it correctly. Again, I am almost sad. Oh, after Nate told him about Star Wars, he told me about "Obi Kenobi Wan" (Obi Wan Kenobi).
Naomi's gift of language has mystified us, made us roll on the ground with laughter, and troubled us depending on the time and subject. She has unlimited imagination for stories and sometimes troubling perfect recall of words we have said. (Don't worry--nothing bad, just incriminating.) She loves to evangelize Jacob, and recently I overheard her saying, "Jacob, Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Then he rose again and went to heaven to build a big house for all of us. It's huge. When we get there, we'll probably get lost. But we can ask Jesus for help and he'll show us the way." Good stuff! She also occasionally comes out with imaginary stories that almost seem to embarrass her. She'll be putting on a piece of jewelry when she's getting ready for school and say something like, "Eric gave me this when we went on our first date." Then she'll grin and blush.
All of these words add up to a beautiful poem in my heart.
"The words of the pure are pleasant." Proverbs 15:26
(Not that I think my children are "pure" by any means, but Jesus did say that we should have the heart of a little child in order to enter the Kingdom. I think the words above have that kind of quality.)
