Words, words, words!

It is so nice to see Lila developing a friendship with Avery - "Wee Wee" - who is as cute and adorable a friend as a toddler could hope for, and for Lila, it doesn't hurt that she comes with a dog. But we noticed recently that Lila does not often distinguish Wee Wee from other babies. At first, we noticed that when she saw other babies who resembled Wee Wee, she would call or point "Wee Wee!" But then when she did it with anyone (anyone under three feet tall, that is), we realized that she hasn't quite realized that Wee Wee is her own special person, and that there is only one.

And now for a brief update on words.

Lila has quite a few books with alligators strewn through the narratives (also, occasionally, a crocodile, but for my own peace of mind I refer to all creatures resembling the alligator as an "alligator". Why confuse her with another multi-syllabic word?) and she always tries mightily to spit out the word, which surprises me, because she's not one to experiment. She starts out well, but she loses track of it in the back end so that it comes out something like: "AH-LEE-huhur".

"A" for effort, but really, you only know what she's going for if you spend a lot of time reading these books to her.

Other ones she likes: "cupcakes", "shoes", "baby", "teeth", "peas", "shirt", "cup" and "hug". The last is my new favorite, because it comes with another word I love, "Mama", and little arms reaching around my neck and squeezing tight.