Yes, I am Talking To You!

We have been anxiously awaiting Madeline’s first words. While she has started to progress from just pure baby babble and cooing to discernable sounds. Sometimes she looks at us and says “Do be addor thipbt” and while I will always answer her so she knows that I am listening to her, I am sure she is asking me for a raise in allowance that I am not giving her. Josh and I do not believe in baby talking back with her because how can she learn proper language if we are not practicing it. So Josh and I constantly talk to her and as I have stated before, what she understands is amazing. If I tell her that breakfast is hot, she blows on it to cool it off. If Josh tells her to tickle Daddy, then she reaches over to tickle him. She will sit down if asked and helps put her shoes and socks on in the morning. Madeline has a sense of humor and gets a kick out of when I take her socks off at the end of a day and tries to bring me her stinky socks. I guess my reaction is funny and that keeps her coming back.

With all of this fun, we have been keeping an eye on the calendar knowing her first words were just around the corner. Abigail said her first word at 13 months and since Madeline was now 13 months, we were just waiting. Would she say “nana” (banana) like her big sister or maybe “Oreo no!” (stupid cat) which is the most common phrase we say in our house. As we wait, I keep saying “mama” to her and Josh keeps saying “dada” to her. However, the other day I was holding Madeline and making dinner. I was going to drain the pasta and had to put her down so I did not hold a boiling pot of water in one hand and a baby in the other. Shocking, I know. So I put her down and walked away. She stood right up, raised her hands and walked towards me while saying “MAMA! MAMA!”. I immediately put the pot down to pick her up and Josh just stood there saying “And there is her first word!” (I won! HA!)

Speaking of talking and listening, Ms. Abigail is having issues with her listening ears. I am sure I bought the warranty on them but they seem to be sputtering out. I am sure I at least have the receipt. We have had to have a few timeouts recently because of not listening. I even went to her after her 3 minute time out and asked if she was ready to listen. She said no so I put her right back in time out for another 3 minutes. Josh and I are having our patience tested daily. This week we asked her what she had for lunch and what she did at school. After 45 minutes of working through it and changing our techniques, we were unsuccessful. Finally the only thing we could do was to put her to bed early for being stubborn and obstinate. Punk.

It seems as if we are working hard to get both girls to talk to us! Good thing I have you people to listen to me! Right? Is this thing on?