Maundy Thurdsay
We went to an evening Maundy Thursday church service last night. This is supposed to be a very sombre and reflective service, where you contemplate the night of Jesus Christ's betrayal and subsequent death.
Zoë, of course, didn't know this. She chattered, played, and otherwise acted like a very busy toddler throughout the service. She's normally quite active in church, and the fact that it was night and semi-dark didn't phase her. She carried on as she usually does in church, which means wandering around and singing and playing. It did rather break the mood, of course, but I don't think anyone was too bothered by it. They're all used to Zoë flitting around the church during services, to the point of asking where she is if she's not there. She doesn't get into any trouble or make messes or seriously disrupt anything. She's just a busy toddler who gets into interesting situations. This happens to be an extremely child-friendly church, in case you didn't guess. I can't imagine Zoë in a more formal church atmosphere. She wouldn't be able to cope, and neither would the congregation!
Zoë's speech
Well, Zoë seems to have decided that she likes to talk. She hasn't turned into a chatterbox or anything, but she's expanding her vocabulary quite a lot. She has said duck (as in a rubber ducky in the bath), drink, chicken, up, down, cuddle, stink, two, and at least a few sentences made up of more than one word ("Good girl, Daddy", as in telling her dad that she's a good girl, and "Zoe drink", meaning, "I want a drink").
Her speech is still fairly unclear, but I think that's from lack of practice. And she is, indeed, a "gooda gooda gooda girrrrrrrrl", as she would say.
Fat lip
Yesterday morning, we went to get my drivers license, and took both the kids along. While I was in the room doing the test, I heard Zoë sobbing and sobbing, and as soon as I could, I rushed out to see what was wrong.
Andrew was carrying Miranda in the sling and Zoë was sitting in the pram/stroller, and he was busy with changing his address on the touch screen. Zoë stood up and leaned on to the back of the pram and tipped it over and cut her lip. She cried and cried for a long time, mostly because she had a big scare, but also, I'm sure, because it hurt. Turned out she drove her teeth quite far into the lower lip, which is very swollen and bruised and has a big cut on the inside. She wouldn't let us look at it for a long time, and when I finally did see it, we made a doctor's appointment right away. Fortunately, mouth wounds tend to heal very well and don't require stitches. The doctor told me what to look for by way of infection and told me what foods to avoid (anything acidic or salty). Since she didn't hit her head or do any other damage, we just need to keep an eye on her and wait for it to heal.
Speech pathology
Zoë had her appointment with the speech pathologist today. She is speech-delayed, but they don't think there's anything seriously wrong. We've got some instructions on how to encourage her to talk, and we're signed up for a series of classes to teach us other things we can do with her. For now, we're "labeling" everything, which means we use single words and just tell her what everything is and what actions are, etc.
However, she has started to talk more lately. Tonight she said "stink" (her grandfather said to her, "You stink," and she said pretty clearly, "stink"). She also is saying "dink" (drink) much more regularly, along with other things like "Dada, bubba!" (Daddy, get the baby, meaning herself, out of bed for breakfast). Andrew was a late talker. When he started talking, it was in full sentences and with complex words. The speech pathologist said she'd heard of that, but it's not very common. Some kids do, apparently, just take it all in and then when they start to talk, they have a whole bank of accumulated knowledge to draw from. Perhaps Zoë will be the same way.
Talking
Zoë seems to have decided she'll talk now. Tonight she clearly said "drink" (well, okay, she said "dink dink dink" but it was in context). Yesterday she said "cheese on toast" (more like "teeahtoh" but, again, it was in context and I knew what she was saying). She still speaks unclearly and she's certainly no chatterbox, but she is making the effort now. I think once she works out just how useful (and fun) it is to talk, she'll catch right up.
Also do check out the new pictures in the Picture Gallery.
Answer the phone!
This morning, I was sitting down feeding Miranda while Zoë ate her breakfast. The phone rang. Since I was the only one home and I didn't want to interrupt the baby's feeding, I decided to let the answering machine pick up. Zoë got very excited and then upset as the phone kept ringing and I showed no sign of answering. I said to her, "Just leave it, it's okay." Apparently, though, it wasn't okay, because the toddler burst into a torrent of hysterical sobbing.
When the phone rings, you're supposed to answer it!
Little sisters and ice cream
Today Zoë said her sister's name. Well, she actually said something like, "aaaaannda", but it was very obvious she was saying Miranda.
Zoë also had an ice cream cone all by herself! It was frozen vanilla yogurt, but it was a scoop on a cone like ice cream, and she managed to eat it with very little help. She did make a mess, but she had a bib and eating ice cream is a learned skill that she's only just learning.
Glasses
Yesterday, Zoë managed to get her hands on my glasses while I was still half-asleep and Andrew was in the shower. As she was playing with them, she managed to pull off the plastic covers on the earpieces, and no amount of searching would discover what she did with them. Now I have bare wire sort of draped over my ears, and while most of the time it's not too bad, when I put them on it scratches and by the end of the day yesterday I had a headache (which may or may not have had anything to do with the missing earpieces).
I was, I admit, pretty irritated about this. First, she knows better than to handle people's glasses. Yesterday was just an unruly day for her, and she pushed her limits all day long. She just happened to start with my glasses. Secondly, I'm extremely nearsighted and I'm quite badly impaired without my glasses. I tend to get a little panicky when I can't see. However, all's well that ends well. This prompted us to check with our health insurance company to see if I was eligible for glasses, since I'd claimed some in the not-too-distant past. Turns out that we get better benefits than we thought (up to $250 per year per person, or a total of $500 for the family), and this is a new year. So Andrew and I made a double appointment to get our eyes examined and get new glasses, which we'll do on Tuesday (since Monday is a state holiday). In a weird way, Zoë ended up doing me a favor by disobeying me. Life is strange. And so are toddlers.
Naps and so forth
Apparently, she's outgrowing her afternoon naps. Lots of times, I put her down for a nap and she stays awake the whole time, playing quietly or singing to herself. I don't really mind that, but if she doesn't sleep, she's really cranky for the rest of the evening.
She's also started to ask to have her nappy changed. Not with words (we're still trying to figure out how to encourage her to talk to ask for things), but by climbing up onto the table and sitting on the changing pad until someone notices. Once she's had the nappy change, she's happy to get down and play some more. Kinda cute, when you think about it. She won't talk (for whatever reason), but she certainly can communicate!
Talking
Well, she seems to have decided to talk, at least a bit. Her latest thing is to say "lo-lo" (hello) when someone says hello to her, but she'll only do it if it's in the right context. For example, when someone meets her for the first time and says "Hello", as she did in the lift yesterday. Or when someone comes home from being away or she sees them for the first time that day for some other reason. If they say "Hello" she answers "lo-lo". Under no other circumstances will she say this word.
This just goes a bit further to convince me that she's perfectly able to talk and that she understands language and context. She's been talking for ages, just not much and not often. When she does talk, she does it in context and it's crystal clear that she understands how to use the sounds as language. She just doesn't seem to want to talk is all. Oh, well. Once she starts, I figure we'll never get her to shut up again...
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