January 2000 Update

Dear Crêche everybody,

Happy New Year!

Claudia has been a very busy girl over the past 3 1/2 weeks, and I imagine you will see a lot of changes in her.She’s talking a lot more - particularly when alone with us, but also in front of other people these days.

It’s still almost all single words (apart from one “more juice” which made us very proud), but she is using them to communicate much more complex concepts than “That’s Puff” (Pu/Bu), “I see Mummy” (Mu), or “Daddy has a nose!” (No). So for example when she cried “nose” and I said “Oh you banged your nose” she added “door” to tell me what the nasty banger was.

She’s learnt to say the word “no” (should we be very very sad) as opposed to just shaking her head, but still just grunts or dances for yes.It’s hard to tell just how much she understands but it seems to be quite a lot. She recognised the wiggles’ logo on the spine of a book and said “oogle oogle” until I gave in and read it to her. She says “two” when we are counting something out, but at this stage I’m sure that’s just a sequence recognition.

We are in trouble if we mention videos or juice, and she can point to many more parts of her body than she can name. She also follows many more simple commands these days. “Pick this up and give it to grandad” often works (unless it is a biscuit she could eat) or “put this in the box/bucket/basket and then come back”. “Go and sit on the couch” or “Go and sit in High chair” also work most of the time (and when they don’t it’s because there is something much more interesting going on in the back garden!)

For Christmas, she got a sand pit (from us not from Santa), and she is getting better at using the spade to put sand in the bucket. She loves to chase her ball, but isn’t throwing or rolling it to us yet (although she does a great controlled drop which is the next best thing). She has TWO ride-on toys (both presents) which she races around on. Her other favourite thing is her new fireman’s helmet which she puts on, then puts on someone else, etc etc.

She is super-demanding, especially when she wants juice (a splash of juice in a big cup of water but who’s telling). She’s also been very very hard to get to sleep during the day, although I realise she’s always been better at crêche than at home. I hope we haven’t “broken” her for you!

Vocabulary

Parts of the body:
eye, nose (no), ear, tummy, foot/toe (same as “shoe”), poo (usually immediately after she has done one), mouth (sounds a lot like mummy)

People & Animals
Mummy (Mu), Daddy (da-dy), Puff (bu - she is over-generalising and uses this for any cat now), Lion (arrr), Camel (t-t-t), Sheep (baaa), sometimes she can do snake (sssss)

Household objects
Shoe (sounds kind of like door - she uses this for shoe/sock and foot/toe although that might be telling us that’s where the shoe should be), door, bath, High Chair (daa-daa - now used for any kind of chair)

Entertainment
Wiggles (oogle), video (ideo), ball, Orinoco (her womble toy)

Food
fruit, juice, orange juice, more!

Other
uh-oh, oh dear, no, up, ?cuddle? (Maybe - sounds like du-dl), again (doesn’t sound like anything but she makes a 2-syllable sound after we sing a song or read a book that clearly means she wants it again), two (the sound you make after “one”)