word games

The joke we tell is this: Whenever Edie wants to be entertained she calls 'dadada.' Whenever she actually needs something she'll call 'mamama'. The truth is she has been saying the two sounds, strings of sounds rather than words, for a while now, with different degrees of intention, moving between one and the other. She certainly understands and waits expectantly when I tell her mama is coming. Smiles and waves when she arrives. 

I'm a little concerned that word number three is going to be 'no' or 'nanana.' Actually, there is no doubt that the sound and the message with this word is already programmed in. I know this because she has been practising shaking her head and saying to herself at the same time. Well, you have to say 'no' a lot to an increasingly mobile baby in a little house, simply to avoid trouble and tears. 

Sometimes I think Edie is saying no to herself in a little game. Could she really be imagining something then telling herself that is not permitted. Is that possible or does that sound too complex for an 11 month girl? Perhaps she just enjoys copying the sound or associates the sound with particular places in the house. The funny thing is that she looks all sad and serious when she says it. 

The final piece of language the she has already learned is a gesture. It's the symbol for 'milk'. She gestures using  British sign language and the action is basically that of squeezing an udder. To explain, Amy has been taking her to a song and actions class where they learn lots of gestures like this and we've used it whenever we've been giving her a bottle. It's effective as it's part of the bedtime routine. So now she is using it to remind us at the times she knows she usually gets her milk. She also uses it with me when I give her her evening bottle. She already has the bottle, she takes a drink, then just to remind me that she knows the symbol and to check I wont forget tomorrow, she'll make the gesture again. You can't be too careful when it comes to getting your evening feed

tumble cries

I've been meaning to write about little face (Edith) - but keep putting it off. I wanted to write about her big raspberry period when all she did was blow, well,  you can guess. I planned to write about the weekend she just started sitting up of her own accord. It happened so quickly it even surprised us. Suddenly the muscle was there to support her frame and she was upright surveying the scene from a royal height, looking pleased with herself. 

This was a couple of months ago now. Since then she has turned her sitting position into a more mobile unit, dragging herself around on her bum. It's not crawling yet because she's got one leg stuck under her and one leg splayed out at an angle, but it's definitely movement - I'm pretty sure she knows what she's aiming for. The game goes like this: find an object then throw it so the thing rolls away from her. Then chase it leaning forward onto both hands without falling flat. I noticed that while playing this throw and chase game, she worked her way across the kitchen floor until she was grabbing for the wall.

The one thing she hasn't learned is to sit herself up again if (and when) she does tumble forward. If she reaches the tumble stalemate, then a few frustrated cries bring dad or mum to prop her back up so she can start the game again. This is really both frustration language and command language at the same time. Perhaps all frustration language has a demand for attention contained in it. That's true of most cries of frustration. They pretty much say, "Oi! come over here and give me some sympathy."