i started this list almost two months ago, and reviewing it just now, i see it's already changing a lot. so, here it is, before we lose any more time. (nevermind that i missed what is approaching a year in chronicling her life, but if i start to think about that i start to want to curl up in a ball, so let's just not dwell on that bit...)
my favorite current word: screwdriver -- skoo-why-weh (refers to both just the screws and actual screwdrivers.)
that tells you a lot about our current life. this baby sees as many screwdrivers and other bits of construction detritus than she does proper toys. hopefully this phase will calm down soon. :)
various requests and commands and other such ways of communicating her needs:
stop, please! -- dop, peas (she says please for *everything*)
thank you -- tank-oo
sister aka Eva -- dit-der (eh-Vuh)
hazel do it/ i did it! -- ha-zool do it / i dea iht (so triumphant! :)
help, please. -- hep, peas
i would like more of that -- mo dat.
i don't want this -- no wahn dit (aka, i see something i'd like better, so please this this now odious item from my grasp.)
i do not like it -- no lie dit
i am all done with this -- ah dun dis (so take it away right nooooow!!!)
some important sources of nourishment:
water (woy), orange (ohnsh), yogurt (yo-dit), snack (nak), cracker (cack-ee), juice (djoose), cheese (shez), taco, toast (toatst,) her early favorite from time in ND, apple (appo), pretzel (pet-zol), broccoli (bok-ee)
her favorite source of nourishment, however, is of course nummy. good ol' nummy. whereas eva always said "maok", hazel came up with nummy -- started with my making an "uhmmm" sound when trying to motion for her to eat, which she changed to ummmmy, then yummy, then nummy. (even now, she will say "mmm, nummy!" when she likes some food, so i think she thinks it's the same word, the word for milk and the word for delicious. and hey, why not?)
along with nummy, we get such phrases as "hep nummy" (hey, why's this annoying shirt in the way? can you please help me?) "peas nummy" (sometimes said sweetly and other times screamed over and over, which is less but somehow nearly more convincing, i have to admit) and the new favorite "nummy bet. peas? nummy bet." (i want to go up to bed and go to sleep)
some favorite fashion items:
glasses (ga-sess, generally papas which she steals before he wakes up in the morning) neck-us (not so crazed for them as eva was for her beloved "neckies"), boot & socks (sots), which come off and on repeatedly. since she potty trained herself last week (more on this later, hopefully), she's become quite fascinated with unnies (underwear), to the point of demanding -- absolutely insisting -- that i help her put on all 9 pair she owns. at once. i feared all that elastic would cut off her still-residually-chunky legs, but man, she was not happy when i took them off. (as i type this, she is still awake (10:30) and just announced "potty", then walked to the bathroom, and i can hear that she took off her nighttime diaper then opened the potty and sat down. i still don't know where all this came from. it's all her.)
conversations to be aware of:
--(me saying anything)--- "what?" --(me explaining)-- "oh."
she asks with genuine interest, and then no matter what jibberish i say in reply, she says "oh" as if my explanation was highly elucidating. it's one of my favorite things ever. other versions include:
"what doing?" "oh."
"happen?" "oh."
several weeks back, she was dreaming and awoke, looked at me, and said (clearly very concerned): "happen? happen? sary. sary." (as in, scary) then fell immediately back to sleep. oh, baby, you had a bad dream... sad, but glad you can tell me about it now.
a favorite word:
soh-we. soh-we. i soh-we.
i soh-we.
if she bumps into you, if you say something sounding irritated, if you're crying, if she perceives that she has slighted you in any way.... i'm sorry. i know she's modeling our saying it, but the frequency with which she says it makes me wonder...
responses to questions:
i no know. -- said in the cutest voice, with her hands thrown up in the universal gesture... hazel, where are your shoes? i no know! ("know" comes out as about three syllables, in a sing-song fashion. huh, wonder who talks like that?)
in addition to the usual "no" and "yes", we also have unh-uh (no) and mm-hmm (yes) though that has become "uh-huuuuh", in the same three-note sing-song.
oh-kay! she says that a lot. (that and "uh oh! key-mup!" (clean up)...at least someone around here is interested in cleaning.)
(as i'm typing, she came out of hte bathroom holding a wipe, giving a token effort to wiping herself, saing "'nuff wip." yes hazel, that is enough. you only need one wipe, not the usual one dozen. or one package.)
she knows tons of words -- already, sadly, far too many to chronicle -- but these are some i like. for a few months now, she's been firmly in the phase of filling in the words she doesn't know with what sounds to us like jibberish. but, the sentence structure is all there, as is vocal inflection, and given the intelligible words she mixes in there, she makes her meaning plenty clear. the times when i have no idea what she's said, i repeat it back to her as a question and she'll emphatically reply "yeah!" yeah. i thought so hazel. because you clearly feel strongly about this, whatever this is...
i've always said that that phase from about 15 months to 2 yrs is just the most delightful, when they go from just saying a few words through this explosion of language and come out *talking* to you. and while they're doing that, you're really getting to know more about how they think, you see who they are more clearly... and all the while, the full-on conflicts and tantrums aren't there yet (just the practice kind -- not that i knew that the first time around. first time, those early tantrums seemed so huge, and this time they're almost cute. :)
okay, off to take this little baby to bed. 22 months old now, so soon she'll be 2 already! my baby, already a kid. she is quite simply a joy. almost everything she does, it's just fun to be a witness to that spark in her eye as she figures it all out.
she just brought me a pressure gauge, announced "clock" (okay, so she said it w/o the L sound) -- and i'm wondering, how does she even know what a clock is? we don't have a working analog clock in the house. then she looks at me and says "haha. funny." what's funny is htat she has now fed me at least a dozen pretzels despite my protests, ferrying them from the bag at the other end of the coffee table. i resist, then get distracted while typing, and she sneaks another one to me. haha. funny.
and now we've come full circle back to a "nummy bet" request, so off i go to take this night owl baby to bed.
ps> i almost forgot what might be the best one! in addition to hug (uhk) and kiss, we have "nuggo" (or slowly it morphs to get that L on the end, nuggol). snuggle. there's little i love more than when my baby walks over and asks to nuggo. that's the good stuff right there.
