Too smart for my own good

Recent ramblings from Julia & Jacqueline:

1. A couple of days ago I was watching TV. Jacqueline came in the living room babbling away like always. This time she went to the TV, which had captions on (as usual), holding one of Julia's sight word flash cards, she pointed at the subtitles with the card and said "this" and shook the card and said "that". She did it a couple times while I picked my jaw up off the floor and asked her to repeat, "What did you say? She must have done it about 4 times. "This, that." She's 22, almost 23, months old.

2. Julia loves typing on the computer, especially with her Aunt Susie when we Skype. Yesterday she was trying to capitalize the first letter of a word, and somehow knew to hit "caps lock" but she didn't realize that it would capitalize all letters. Susie asked why her last couple of words were in all-caps while I explained internet protocol related to "yelling"/all-caps. I left the room and at some point later she was typing and it was again all capital letters. Tara commented and Julia's response was "They are all capital but I wasn't yelling". Tara was dumbfounded b/c she had not been privy to the earlier conversation. Once that was clarified we both marveled at how quickly Julia processed the concept and used it. She'll be 5 years old on Sunday. Amazing!

Fun things Julia says

Dad, you realize that you have your shoes on inside of the house.

Yesterday Julia said some funny comments to Tara.
1. After checking her backpack for clothes, she was responsible for replacing what was missing.
As we got ready to go to Y, I asked her about the backpack's status.
Julia: "Yes, Mom. I'm on it."

2. We had plans with some friends who we haven't seen in a long time. Probably since Julia was about a year old & they live 2-3 miles from us! However, our plans changed because she was sick, then Jai got sick so we re-scheduled.
Julia: "Are we going? I really want to see them ... though I don't really know who they are."

Wise words from an almost 4 year old. : )

Imagination Peaking

Julia has been very verbal from the moment she became verbal. Her vocabulary and grammar is pretty amazing; picking up on the things we say, filling in gaps and so on. Recently she's gone off the rails with imaginary language. Sometimes Julia will talk for 20 minutes straight in her own imaginary language. Its a verbal vomit. She starts talking about something and then it transforms into this gibberish.It sounds like she is pronouncing sets of jumbled letters yet it sounds like words. Its mind-boggling to hear, especially her extended monologues.

Side note. One of my fav radio shows just did a very interesting show on language development

Then comes the imaginary play, this is obvious stuff. She mimics what she sees. She feeds and reads to her "friends". She plays games and she tells them stories. In that spectrum is drawing where she puts a dot on a page and says she's drawing a tree or a smiley face. Today it finally took that twist we all dread to hear...

Julia, why did you drop the book? I asked.
Daddy I didn't do it, Bunny did. She answered.

Great! She now has accomplices.

Also...

Julia quote of the day: Do you want your penis in your mail? (I can put this is context if you wish but it stands on its own)

Pint Sized Griotte

Julia has taken to song. She's been singing for a long time but now she has more melodies and more words to put with it. Most of her songs are sung to the tune of "Old McDonald" but she throws in the occasional "ABC" or "Itsy Bitsy Spider". Lyrically she sings the adventures of Julia and family in the tradition of the epic songs of old or the griot songs of west Africa. A typical song might be something like:

My name is Julia Frances and I have a dog, his name is Johnders. There's TP and Splotches, what's their names? They are the names of the cats and my Grandma Bonnie's house...I pet them...India and Johnders is my dog. Jesse, Michael, India plays with Johnders when she comes to my back yard with my mommy and daddy.

We go to Sam and Anne Marie's house and play in the pool and get cupcakes and Johnders, he's my dog and I feed him treats and he sits down and I play with him. Last night I wore my Dora PJs and I cried and I took a bath and Mommy went upstairs. It was dark, we read a book and I brushed my teeth...Where's the moon?...I woke up and we eat breakfast with my dad and my mom and she went to work. My dad went to the Y with me and I exercise. Down Dog, Up Dog...1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 16, 17, 18...Moses was a baby and his sister, what's his sister's name? MIRIAM. His mother and the princess, what's her name? His mother's name is Jochebed. Moo moo here and a moo moo here and moo moo here. Old McDonald had a farm. Moo moo here and a moo moo her.

This can go on for 10+ minutes (again in the epic poem tradition) while she's running around the house. Its a blast to listen to because you can see the things that make an impact in her day. Her language can be breathtakingly funny as well as stunningly sophisticated. Her imagination is hard at work putting these facts together and it is obviously easier to do with melody and rhythm. I think we should all sing and tell stories more.

Now. if I could just get kora lessons.

Practice Makes Perfect

Julia usually takes an afternoon nap but sometimes we do quiet time in the morning...half-hour or so where she sits in her bed with a book, lays down, reads, talks whatever.

Over the past couple of days she's been a little sick and her schedule is a screwy. She's taken morning naps and quiet-time/nap in the afternoon. Today, I listened while she did her typical singing and humming and, of course, babbling and I heard her say "mommy", "daddy", "daddy", "mommy" over and over. She was practicing.

I've heard her repeat things but its usually while she is reading or talking near us or imitating us. This is the first time I have heard her do what sounds like practice repetition.

Kinda cool, huh?