Who's My Big Talker?

Clio is a big talker. This isn't news. But it's funny now to look back on the word lists we kept when her vocabulary was first developing- they seem so, I don't know, quaint. My Aunt Molly recently told me that at this age, toddlers are learning about 15 new words a day, and Clio seems to prove this as she repeats everything back to us, and comes out with words we had no idea she knew. Like "enormous" or "favorite" or "bannister."

The other day she looked at me and said, "My name is Clio." I agreed that it was, and then she said. "My name is Peterson." Also true, but neither Dave nor I taught her this.

She's also connecting words to real-world experiences. Last night, she heard a noise out the window and I said, it sounds like someone's motorcycle. She looked at me and said, "Daddy's motorcycle?"

Most exciting, though, is watching her piece together concepts through language, like the concept of time. Lately, she'll say things like "I painted this picture last morning," or "see you next day!" (One of my Aunt Missy's favorites from her kids was "nexterday"). She's also working on ideas of scale and physical relationship, so we're seeing a lot of experimentation with prepositions, like "the magnet is on the refrigerator behind us." She still insists that the itsy-bitsy spider goes "up to the sun" though, so it's not quite all clear to her yet.

One thing is clear to me: we need to start watching our mouths- and our actions. Last week when I drove her to school and had very bad luck with traffic, reckless drivers, and parking, this could be heard from the back seat:

"Mommy, why you say 'Oh my god'?"
"Mommy, why you go like this?" (making the motion of hitting the steering wheel).

It's also time to start writing down some of the funny things Clio says, because god knows I can't remember anything anymore. I asked Lizzie how she keeps track of her daughter's stories for "Laila Quotes," a regular feature on her blog The Hewitt Chronicles, ans she said she spends a lot of time calling herself and leaving messages. Great idea (if only we had a cell phone.) Keep an eye out in the future- if I can get it together, I will blatantly rip off this idea and share Clio Quotes.