Kids These Days

The emergence of language is fascinating to me. The prospect of witnessing our girls acquire French is one of the main attractions of spending a year abroad. (Jason and I just hope we'll be able to keep up linguistically.)

Over the past few weeks, Talia's spoken English has taken off at rapid-fire speed. I find it very amusing to ponder these first words and phrases, and chuckle over what they reflect about our parenting.

So here are Talia's top words and phrases...

Clearest pronunciation with the sassiest intonation: No. (No, no ambiguity about what she's saying here. She says it and she means it!)
Poorest pronunication: Mommy. It comes out kind of like Baba. I guess she figures that I'm going to respond anyway, so there's no need to be fussy.
First adjective: Stinky. I think that we've been commenting a little too much on her diapers and feet. :)
First two-word phrase: Good girl. This evidence of positive reinforcement helps me feel a little bit better about the stinky and no.
First proper noun (excepting names): McDonalds. Oops! Feeling a little guilty about this one...
First food label: Pancake, pronounced kaycake. At Talia's last doctor's visit, the pediatrician was a little concerned that our skinny little Talia might not be eating enough. If the doctor could only see Talia devour her kaycakes, she'd know that she's eating plenty--she just has her Daddy's metabolism.

Chuckles from Brooklyn:
While playing pretend with her toys, I overheard Brooklyn say, "Help! Save me! I'm a goner!"
More embarrassingly, she recently told me, "Mommy, your nose is ginormous!"

Kids these days...