Three things happen when Olivia's vocabulary is mentioned.
1. We get a side eye, or an "oh really?" look of disbelief. We are judged as over exaggerators.
2. We get, "Yes, she is a little parrot. She certainly knows how to mimic, doesn't she?!"
3. We (or mostly I) get a comment about how I must just sit and drill her all day long. These are mostly from the people who can clearly see that she DOES have a huge vocabulary for an 18 month old. For example, a friend called yesterday and said, "What are you guys up to over there? Teaching Olivia how to write in complete sentences?!"
Truth be told, I'm only mildly bothered by these statements. Number one bothers me, because I hate when others make their kids out to be "geniuses" and to imply I am being untruthful annoys me. Number two doesn't really bother me. It just makes me think the person is ignorant. Number three both amuses me and slightly irritates me both at the same time. But that's life. We are a society full of insecure judgers. (Myself included--working on it!)
I thought about these things this morning as I was sitting in Olivia's room. She does not like to get out of bed right away. On the other hand, she doesn't like to just be left in there alone. So the last few mornings, Michael and I have been just hanging out in her room having our morning coffee. Olivia then proceeds to talk our ear off. First, she likes to name everything in the room that she can see. Then she just sits and plays or drinks her milk or jibber jabbers about random things.
This morning's interaction went something like this....
O: "Oh Boppa! Oh Mama!" (we responded with our good morning greetings to her)
O: "Oh bird. A pig. A flower. Elmo. A sheep. A elephant. A blanket. A pillow. Bible! A book. A owl." (we just repeat what she says or say, "Yes, a bird")
Her little ocean thing on her crib is out of batteries (hello, those guys are expensive!). So every morning (and after nap too) she says, "It work" and then "batteries" because we have told her enough that it needs batteries.
She kept saying "off". I asked if she wanted her sleep sack off. I got it unzipped and then she changed her mind by plopping down on the bed. She says "plop" when she plops to the ground now. Then as she sat there, she peeked through the slats at Michael (who was sitting on the ground) and said, "I see you Boppa!". He said, "I see you squiggle bug." Then she looked at me. "I see you Mama!" I said, "I see you!"
Then she stood up and said, "Up. Up." This is just a trick. She asks to get out of her crib, but doesn't really want to. I got up from the chair and asked if she wanted out. She then plopped down on the crib again and laughed and said, "No". She thinks she's funny.
I sat back down. She said, "Milk" and then took a drink from her sippy. I asked, "What am I drinking?" and she said, "Coffee".
Michael started playing music on her toy house. She kept asking for "more" and saying "house".
Michael left then to finish getting ready for work. He always blows his nose. She says, "Nose!" every time. Then she heard him brushing his teeth and said, "brush". Then she started saying, "Where he go?" and I said "He's in the bathroom". She said, "You hear me? You hear me?" Michael yelled down the hall, "I hear you squiggle bug". Then as she was sitting there she looked down at her open sleep sack and said, "Toes".
Next was some more talk about her milk. She then picked up her stuffed dog and said, "Doggie. Ruff Ruff Ruff". She gave it a hug and said "snuggle snuggle". When she sat back up, she sat on Violet's foot and it started playing a song. She said, "Oh. What's that?" I told her it was Violet and that we needed to take the Christmas music off. Then she started talking in all sorts of jibberish that I have no idea what it means.
Michael walked back in the room and she said, "There he is!"
That was all in the span of about fifteen to twenty minutes. At least what I can remember anyway. Yeah....... I think she's a good mimicker. How about you? :)
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