Language Explosion!

My favorite part of parenting is watching language development in my kids. For me, parenting is so much more enjoyable when my kids are talking. I love to hear their reactions to the world around them. I love to hear their observations, even if it is just someone yelling "Dog" from the back seat of the van. Sure, the sass and occasional humiliation I could do without, but I just love the interaction speech allows me with my daughters.

It should come as no surprise, then, how exciting it is for me to hear Maggie start talking. This week has been the beginning of Maggie's language explosion. She has added new words and phrases everyday. Her words are getting clearer and she is using words more and more to make requests and control her environment. I catch her repeating words she hears, experimenting with the pronounciation and then using the words in context. I just marvel at how quickly speech comes together for her.

Most amazing is that Maggie is already adding phrases. To hear Maggie say a phrase is wild. Today, I know she said, "I want more." Nana heard Maggie say, "I put it in". The phases sound fairly garbled, almost like a multi-syllable word, but she is clear enough to be understood.

We have been so lucky with speech development. Speech delays happen sometimes with kids who need to learn new languages after their first birthdays. The fact that both of our girls have been normal on speech development is something for which we are grateful.

Of course, the word Maggie says best is "No", but I suppose that is to be expected at this age.