Walkie Talkie Girl

A couple of weeks ago, Sammy started to utter what I call “proto sentences”– two or more words strung together, usually nouns, but that when interpreted correctly, comprise a complete thought. She’s been combining words with “more” for a while now, as in “more music,” “more cars,” and “more kitty cats” (“mo kee cat?”) and also saying goodbye to specific things “bye bye kee cat.” Maybe two weeks ago, though, she really surprised me with the following utterance:

“Mama Daddy Our Car Home.” (sounds like: Ma ma… Da ee… ar car… ohm). She also signed “Mama” and “Daddy.”

Minutes earlier I had told her that we were going to pick up Daddy in the car and bring him home from the train station.

She’s also exploring the imperative mood:
“Mama up couch!” (“couch” sounds like “cow) which translates to: Mama, report to the couch now!”

“Down walk!” (“walk sounds like “wa”): Put me down this instant, woman! I will walk on my own.

“Milk lullabies bath!” (sounds like “mil la la ba”): We will drink milk and listen to lullabies, then you will give me a bath!

And then there are her little narratives of the past. These are my favorite.

“Grand-mère bye bye airplane” (sounds like “Gam” “bye bye” “ah pa”): Grand-mère went bye bye in an airplane.

“Baby Katrina bye bye car” (sounds like Bay bee tree bye bye car): Baby Katrina (our 10-month old friend) went bye bye in a car.

“Park big ball kick” (pa bi baw kee): We went to the park and kicked the big ball around.

The other day after we returned from the park where we kicked the big ball around, Sammy grabbed my cell phone and started to jabber away. Except her pretend talk was peppered with recognizable words: “bi baw blah blah blah pa blah blah mama.”

That was cool. The language teacher in me is fascinated and awed.

Here she is in the back yard playing with the “bi baw.”

This is so much fun.