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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

On speaking and moving

Big girl only seems to work on one of those skills at a time. She stopped the pseudo-army crawl, but for a while there, I guess late July to mid-August, she was getting pretty chatty. If things were quiet, and she was just lying around, like for instance during a diaper change, she'd start talking at anyone or thing in the room. Not babbling, exactly - more like long groan-y noises with a conversational cadence. I'd ask her, "Yeah? What happened next?" and she'd reply with more of the same. We thought it was great.

Then she went silent. After a couple of days we checked with each other, and none of us, parents or caregivers, had heard a peep. Lots of giggles and laughs and occasional shrieks (and PLENTY of screams and cries) - but no more "conversation." However she was working hard at rolling over. At this point she rolled over about once a day, usually on accident, and she usually found it upsetting. Now in this new silence she became the rolling-over-est thing you ever saw. As soon as she was put on her tummy, she flipped onto her back. A few times, she even rolled from her back to her tummy. One time, with my sister, she did a whole 360 roll.

Then, the day before our housewarming party (yes, it'd been six months since we moved, but it took us that long to get a couch and dining table so guests could sit someplace), she started again. We were both home and instantly checked with each other. "Did you hear that! She talked! It's been so long!" We were pretty excited. The noises were a little bit different. However she made them less, and quit pretty soon.

Next, she began to sit reliably on her own, and then added back in a new kind of talking - she makes these funny whispery under-her-breath noises, sometimes while inhaling instead of exhaling.

Now, 3 weeks later, she can do all of these things:
- sit up
- get onto her belly without smacking her face on the floor
- "speak" under her breath
- cry when someone takes away the non-toy she is playing with (chewing on camera, etc.)
- I swear she's learning to pass a soccer ball with her hands.