Chatterbox

Wow, have Laurel's language skills really taken off.  She seemed to go from one to two word phrases to speaking in complete paragraphs over night.  Yesterday she did not stop talking from the moment I picked her up at daycare to the moment we arrived from home.  I am used to this from Maya, but it is still a bit shocking to hear it come from Laurel.

Some of my favorite Laurel expressions/comments:

"But I love them/it" - spoken when asked to clean up her toys, I give her credit for a creative excuse on why they should not be put away.

"Please can I... be done eating/have milk in my kitty cup/have my blankets/etc?" - she has picked up some very polite habits and I love hearing the complete sentance she puts together.

"Maya, no thank you, don't talk to me.  I want Mommy to talk to me." - said many, many times on our car rides home (imagine this said with complete attitude).  They argue over who will talk to who, and who gets to talk to Mommy.  A little exasperating after a long day!

"I not know" - in response to something she doesn't know.  Usually it means she wants you to explain it to her and tell her what it is.

"No. I gonna." - her way of saying that she wants to do it by herself.

(Looking at me with a really sad face)... "Daddy didn't feed me sausage" - her way of letting me know that she was not happy with the fact that Rey didn't make her sausage for breakfast.  (I am not sure if I have talked about this, but sausage is basically her favorite food.  I can get her to eat most meats if I tell her it is like sausage.  And this is every kind of sausage, including the horrific Vienna Sausage that comes in a can.  She loves the stuff.)

"I don't want it because it waves" - as she flops her slice of pizza around holding it by the crust.  Again, a creative excuse on why she doesn't want something.

"Shhh... there's a bear coming!" - as she runs up and down the house.  This appears to be a favorite game of hers and she has convinced all her friends at school of this fact.  Now they all run around saying that a bear is coming.

It is also becoming very clear how much she is listening and observing the conversations between Maya and I.  Maya and I have some particular songs and games that we made up that occupies our time in the car.  I had Laurel in the car to myself the other day and she immediately started singing the songs.  She has never really participated before, but I guess not having Maya there opened it all up for her.