Charlotte is 2 years and 3 months old, and when I look back at what Emma was saying around this age, I have to admit that Emma was more verbal and easier to understand. Charlotte’s speech is pretty muddled and mushy and basically impossible to decipher if you’re not me, Jose, Emma, or one of her teachers. I’ve worried about this on and off, but always eventually come to the conclusion that Charlotte is totally within the normal range for a 2-year-old. Every kid is different, obviously, and there’s a difference between first kid (all the attention from both parents) and second kid (shares the attention with the sibling).
All that said, her vocabulary and overall ability to communicate has grown a lot in the last few months, and she’s rapidly earning her own “funny sayings” category! Some current favorite phrases:
We’re deep in the “I don’t want it” phase right now, where no matter what we’re asking, the initial default response is often “Idonwanih.” All slurred together as if it’s some sort of 4 syllable word!
Another thing we hear regularly at the dinner table every night now is some sort of commentary on whether her food is hot or not. If we put a plate in front of her and caution her that it’s hot, she’ll blow on it. And when she tests something and finds it satisfactory, she’ll immediately pipe up with an announcement of “nah hah, nah hah.” (Not hot, not hot.) It’s always repeated at least twice!
Charlotte has always been cuddlier than Emma was, and still wants to be held on a pretty regular basis, particularly when we’ve just gotten home from work/school/daycare. In an effort to have her requests come in form of something (anything) other than a screech, many months ago we started encouraging her to say “pick me up please.” These days, it takes the form of her standing on the floor in front of me, arms outstretched and face turned up towards me, and a chorus of “up pees, up pees, up pees!”
She knows all of her basic colors — “reh, bwoo, ahnsh (orange), reeen”– and a half dozen or so letters. (Although she can sing the whole alphabet song without fail.) The letters she knows so far are mostly associated with something memorable. If I show her the foam C in the bathtub, she says “C Charlotte.” There’s also “E Emma,” “D Daddy,” “M Mommy,” “A Apple,” and “B Baby.” Emma knew her letters before she was 2 and for a while I felt guilty about Charlotte not knowing all of hers yet…but we also spent a LOT more time on letters with Emma than we have with Charlotte. She’ll know them all soon enough!
Other fun phrases:
“Are oo Emma?” (i.e. Where are you Emma?) when they play hide-and-seek.
“Rite dere!” (i.e. right there) when finding something in a book or puzzle that we’ve asked her to look for, or even in the car as we get close to her daycare and I ask her where school is.
“Yah” (i.e. yeah) which is simple enough, but I’m recording it here for posterity so that hopefully years from now I’ll remember how darn cute it is. She says “yah” with an adorable inflection, short but pitch rising at the end, and often accompanied by wide eyes and an almost surprised expression.
“Bih-beff” is our neighbor Elizabeth. “Ee-sha” and “Seh-bee” are her teachers Aiesha and Shelbi.
Last but not least, I have to mention this funny habit — we can nearly always tell when she’s pooping because she goes into a corner or into the pantry, and when Jose or I come too close she starts waving and saying “bye bye! bye bye!” If she’s in the pantry, she even pushes us out and closes the door. Wants her privacy I guess! Ha! (And hopefully this behavior will make it easier when we do decide to bite the potty training bullet.)
p.s. I’m doing a 31 day blog writing challenge!
