LL Says:

This morning Lulu (remember, she's 2) had something to show to her sister, and as she drew whatever-it-was from behind her back she said, "Voilà!"

I admit that I am one of those obnoxious braggy moms. My kids' (both of them) language skills are amazing and I like love to talk about it. But even while I recognize this, I am still constantly (and always have been) surprised by the way Lulu communicates. I often find myself asking, "Where'd she learn that?" I asked that this morning, in fact (Pete said, "From her Dora game."). It's not just that she knows a ton of words for someone who isn't even 3. It's that she has this gigantic vocabulary and understands how to use it to make the point she wants to make. She just knew that "Voilà!" was something a person would say when revealing something. And it's not only her vocabulary. There is a very mature complexity in a lot of her sentences. I have an example, but it's not a great one, but I'll tell you anyway and then try to think of a better one to post later. In the car a couple of weeks ago, we were playing the "guess what-what?-that's what!" game, and after Husbandguy and I each did it to Lulu once she said, "You get me every time! You both get me every time!!" Her own words, "You both." She heard, "You get me every time," from HG first, I think, but her giant little brain took the thought and made it bigger and her own, and I was stunned - in a good way.

At the same time, though, she is very 2-years-old. I recently had to research how to deal with temper tantrums because HG and I had forgotten that you just have to ignore them (duh!) and were getting all stressed out by the frequency of them. When those happen, Lulu's language is very pre-preschool, very age-appropriate, very exhausting. So we tell her then that we can't understand her, and eventually she gets back to talking like the rest of us again.

The other day, HG was reading to her and she stopped him and said, "Now teach me the letters, Daddy. I will read this part. You just teach me the letters." Really? She wants to read now? She's ready? Okay. So I'm teaching her "the letters."

I can't wait to hear what she comes up with next!