The evolution of Emma’s language has been a magnificent thing to watch over the past couple months. To think that it’s only to get more enthralling is a wonder. It’s amazing how quickly The Little One can pick up new words and put them to use.
The other day, Emma and I had returned from a trip to the grocery store, and there was a gallon of tea sitting on the counter. I’d put Emma in her high chair and she sat in the kitchen while I was getting her dinner ready. She pointed to the tea, slightly tilting her head to the side, and said, “juice?”
“No, Sweetie. That’s tea… Mommy’s tea.”
“Teeeeee,” she said with a smile.
The next morning, we were back in that same spot — Emma watching from her high chair as I prepare d her breakfast. We were talking — she’s especially chatty in the mornings — and she pointed to that gallon container and said, “Mamma’s tea!”
Wow. I had said it only once the night before. Then she had her bath, went to sleep, dreamed about Elmo, woke up, hollered for “Mamma! Josh!” as she has become accustomed to, had a cup of milk and watched Choo Choo Train on DVD. After all that, she remembered that the container of dark brown liquid on the counter was “Mamma’s tea.”
By the way, I seem to have lost my name as “Dada,” or “Daddy.” I’m now almost universially referred to by Emma as “Josh.”
Let’s hope it’s just a phase.
As cute as the tea thing was, there’s another Emma saying that will perhaps continue on as Emma lore for a long, long time. It all started about six weeks ago in the children’s section of Target. Emma wasn’t happy. In fact, she was rather upset.
To be honest, she was having a full-on meltdown. Over what, no one knows. But she was sobbing and collapsing and screaming. There was nothing Ashley could do. After running through a quick series of questions trying to determine what it was that was bothering Emma, Ashley simply asked her, “Do you want me to hold you?”
“Yeeeeeeeeeees,” Emma cried. “Hooooooood chu! Hoooooooooooold chu!”
Ever since, any time Emma wants to be held, she walks up to you, frowns a bit, holds her arms in the air and says, “Hold you? Hold you? Hold you?”
I pick her up and say, “You mean ‘hold me. Hold me.’”
“Hold me!” she says with a huge smile (showing a near-full set of teeth!). But you can put her down and 30 seconds later, she’s back at your leg, hands held high in the air, asking, “Hold you???”
