Now THIS is Communication

I titled a post "Joining the conversation" several months ago, when MZ began to make sentence-like babbling, with all kinds of intonations. At the time, it really felt like she was talking with us, the way she'd interject and respond with appropriately modulated noises. None of this prepared us for the excitement we'd feel when she really started using words in context.

The girl is talking. She says Cat all the time, in addition to cats being cats, we are Cats, Grandpa is Cat, anything that deserves her approval also joins the Family Felidae. But now she says Hi, and has transformed peek-a-boo into the "Hi" game. And she says All Done when she's finished eating or drinking. And if you don't get it, if you dare doubt that she knows what All Done means, she will take one more bite, and masticate, and then slowly dribble it down her chin with a Mona Lisa smile that makes us fight laughter while wanting to throw something while secretely cheering her on. Shy, sure maybe, but shy and crafty.

She also says bear, with no R in sight, bea-ah, so sweetly that I can't resist prompting her to say it over and over again. And ball, and okay, and on Sunday at the park, when we all came off quarantine and into the sunshine, as she was going down the steps, oh so carefully, remembering to go down backwards, she quietly told herself, Good Girl.

I'm carrying my heart in her sippy cup again.