Little Parrot Girl

I feel like a broken record, but the fact remains: Violet's verbal skills astound me. Someday, this little lady will be a gifted conversationalist!

She imitates EVERYTHING we are saying (this is both good and bad!). She is now able to hold conversations with other adults and they can understand what she's saying. She loves babbling in her own toddler language too - usually holding a toy cell phone to one ear and the other hand on her hip, parading through the living room.

She understands everything too. In some ways, I feel like we can talk to her just like we're talking to Daniel. She obviously can't respond as well, but she understands it all. (And in some cases, she knows more than Daniel - last week I asked him to kiss my shoulder and he kept kissing my elbow. Violet marched over and kissed my shoulder to show him. Hilarious!)

She has learned "please stop!" - our family's magic phrase for when tickling gets to be too much. (She tried to use it on me when I was changing her diaper - nice try. That's not in the rule book.)

She knows all of her favorite foods by name and asks for them. She knows pretty much every animal sound in existance. (Hearing her "baa" like a sheep is beyond adorable. And her elephant (ep-pah-paht!) impression is not only accurate, it's so cute you have to physically restrain yourself from scooping Violet up and eating her. I'm not lying.)

She has begun to form full questions and sentences. She'll say, "Where's Daddy? Inside? Inside!" She has also begun to dabble in imperatives - and she's pretty bossy! "Mommy, outside!" "Mommy, swing!" (You want me to swing too, Violet?) "Yeah! Mommy, swing!"

My recent favorite: Singing. Out of nowhere, she suddenly sings full songs. The other night, she was singing and doing motions while I was changing her diaper. I recognized it as, "Jesus Loves Me". It's insane how well she does it, with motions. And it's also insane to see how unbelievably excited she gets about finishing a song. Her little body can't contain the excitement and she screams and buries her face into a pillow or something. Adorable.

We are balancing on a precipice - just waiting to cross over into full conversational ability. And honestly, I cannot wait. Every tiny little clear conversation we have with each other just delights us both - Violet squeals and I can't stop grinning. I'm looking forward to girl talks and all the fun stuff moms and daughters get to experience. Bring it on!