Friday, August 3

Julia speaks! In the last two days, Julia has started saying lots of words! Her grandmother Annie had predicted that Julia would be speaking before her visit to Boston tomorrow, but we thought she was wrong until this last-minute flood of words. Yesterday, she echoed “dawww” whenever I pointed to a dog, and today she said it spontaneously several times when she saw dogs in the neighborhood. She also has begun saying “hi” or “bye” when waving to people (although the “hi” sounds a little more like a drawn-out “haaah” — as if she’s affecting a Southern accent!) And she says “na na” for banana.

Friday, August 11

Julia has spent the last three days in the Adirondacks visiting her uncle Nick with me, Annie, and her friend Mary Metz. She’s been accurately echoing lots of words over the last few days, so you can see she’s really working on language. On Tuesday, she repeated “cheese” and “shoe,” and when we were singing “Old MacDonald” in the car, she echoed “duck," and also began saying “e-i-e-i-e-i” (instead of e-i-e-i-o) whenever we got to the chorus. On Wednesday, again in the car, we began a game of all saying “yea!” and throwing our arms up. When we stopped, Julia continued to initiate the game by yelling “yea!” to get us to play. Yesterday, she repeatedly echoed “backpack,” “seashell,” and “cat” when shown those objects.

Tuesday, August 15

Today at the park, I saw Julia playing peekaboo with another child, her friend Wren, who is two months older. They were standing on either side of a suspended beam, looking over it at one another. Julia would crouch down so she was hidden from Wren, and wait until he crouched down so he could see her under the beam, and they would both begin to laugh. Then one would stand up and wait for the other to pop up over the beam. More giggling ensued, and they would repeat the process. It was absolutely adorable, and not initiated by any adult. It was the first time Julia has played with another toddler, unless you count grabbing toys as playing.

Tuesday, August 21

Today we had a development that was not unexpected, but rather unwelcome nonetheless. I was in the basement doing laundry while Julia was playing with her toys. All of a sudden I look out the door and she is standing triumphantly on top of the end table next to the chair. She was so proud of herself for this amazing climbing feat that I didn't want to dampen her enthusiasm, but I did express that she needs to sit down if she climbs up on something. While climbing is an exciting milestone for her, I’m sure, I find it alarming and could do without it.

Friday, August 24

Julia has a new word! In a store yesterday, Julia began pointing and saying “duck, duck!” I looked around to see what she might be referring to, and sure enough, there was a duck mobile hanging from the ceiling. Later, she saw a duck in a book and pointed it out, so she now has two animals she can identify by name. Even cuter, today, she began barking when she saw dogs, making a sound remarkably like an actual dog, sort of a rumbling “woof.”

Wednesday, August 29

Recently we’ve confirmed several words we suspected she’d been saying. She says “up up up,” (sounds like “uh uh uh”) when she wants to climb stairs. She also says “ba” for ball, “ha” for hat, and “schaa” for sock. Now she can get put on her schaas and buckle her schees!