My Bi-lingual Baby

Libby uses about words in her everyday speech. "Bye", which is used for either saying goodbye or asking for something to eat/drink, depending on whether she is waving or leaning towards you with her mouth open. "Daidi", which is our word for diaper, is usually sung over and over again during diaper changes, or when she is emptying the wipes box. "Agee", for again, which is said over and over until I repeat whatever it was that prompted the word, usually patty-cake or my going down her little slide. Her most commonly used words: "gato" and "doggy". The best thing about these words is the fact that she uses them correctly. For a while, every animal was a "gato". Now she uses that word strictly for cats. Birds used to be doggies, but now, only dogs are doggies. At the store, it's almost like she is on the lookout for pictures of dogs and cats, and when she sees them, the points and hollers so that everyone around knows what she is looking at. She says "doggy" when she hears them barking, sees them in her books, or when she sees them in real life, which is the best thing in the world for her. We encountered a yellow lab at the pet store last week and it was hard to say who was more excited, Libby or the dog.

Hobbit, our resident "gato", is the whole reason for this bilingual-ness. I am sure he would rather be left out of the whole mess, as Libby is constantly sneaking up on him to try to sit on him, step on him, throw something at him, or pull his tail. He hangs out on top of the boxes most of the day, safely out of reach.

Today Libby's desperation for a doggy came through in a pitiful way. Thanks to our church schedule, our day of visiting various county offices yesterday to get a new social security card for me and to register my car, and lovely daylight savings time, Libby has been missing naps right and left and waking up before the sun each morning. She's a baby on the edge! I put on Baby Einstein today, since it usually calms her down. Not today. We were watching her favorite one about animals, and it seems Libby just got fed up with the fact that there were no dogs. She stood by my chair, pointed at the screen, and with tears pouring down her face, turned to me and sobbed "doggy" over and over again. She was so upset I had to turn it off. I think that calls for an early naptime, don't you?