Little Sailor-Girl

I'm realizing, as each day passes, that we're clearly in the middle of a huge breakthrough for Abby in terms of her verbal development.  I mentioned the other day that she is now incorporating basic advances in grammar comprehension: sentence phrases, adjectives, possessives.

She also appears to be on the cusp of another huge surge in vocabulary (her first one was back at 16 months) and has begun eagerly naming everything in sight.  The most recent addition to her vocabulary?  Fork.

Only, picture how it might sound coming from the mouth of a toddler.  I'll give you a moment to giggle like a schoolchild (come on, you know you want to.)

It's caused a bit of a sensation for Tom and myself here at home.  Don't get me wrong, we're not big on cursing, and to be honest, I don't particularly like to hear it- especially that word.  But when you're as sleep-deprived as we are, you're looking for just about anything to send you into peals of delirious laughter, and forget for a few moments just how close you are to losing your marbles at times.  Besides, coming out of a toddler's mouth, it just sounds so innocent and, I daresay, cute.


Of course, the word itself is silly enough, coming from her mouth.  But it doesn't end there.

I realized, once it was too late, that my excited response of "yeah!" every time my little angel correctly identified some new animal or object, led her to believe that this word was somehow intrinsically linked to every other.  So it was never just "flower," or "shoe."  It was "flower-yeah!" or "shoe-yeah!"  I've been making an effort lately to instead say, "That's right, Abby!"  It did seem, for awhile, that she was breaking the connection.

However, this new vocabulary surge seems have re-ignited that tendency.  So all day long, as she played with the little dish set that I just brought out for her for the first time, I could hear a tiny little voice piping, "fork-yeah!"  My little baby girl, "cursing" like a sailor.

Speaking of sailors (sorry, just had to throw it in here):

My little sailor-girl, with her Daddy

 As for Michael, we're still going through a bit of a rougher-than-usual patch with reflux and sleep issues.  The past two nights have found both Tom and me awake for extended stretches with him, working through quite a bit of crying and vomiting.  I think, perhaps, the gripe water that we've recently starting trying is to blame.  So, no gripe water tonight, and here's hoping for a better one.  What do you think, Mikey?  Can I get a "Fork yeah?"