Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Words of the Day
A blog is a record of a certain point in time. Here are Sophie's current words along with their meanings for those of you who don't understand her unique dialect.
1. mama (sometimes addressed to Mommy, sometimes to a piece of toast)
2. dada (sometimes addressed to Daddy, sometimes to a garbage can)
3. nana (banana)
4. ba ba (dog)
5. bung/ba-oon (balloon)
6. buh buh (belly button)
7. booh (book)
8. ha (hat, while patting her head)
9. noh (nose, while pointing to or sticking her finger up her nose)
10. ba (ball)
11. fa (fan, points to ceiling fan when asked where it is)
12. pa (pat, accompained by clapping)
13. hi
14. heh-o (hello)
15. bye bye!
1. mama (sometimes addressed to Mommy, sometimes to a piece of toast)
2. dada (sometimes addressed to Daddy, sometimes to a garbage can)
3. nana (banana)
4. ba ba (dog)
5. bung/ba-oon (balloon)
6. buh buh (belly button)
7. booh (book)
8. ha (hat, while patting her head)
9. noh (nose, while pointing to or sticking her finger up her nose)
10. ba (ball)
11. fa (fan, points to ceiling fan when asked where it is)
12. pa (pat, accompained by clapping)
13. hi
14. heh-o (hello)
15. bye bye!
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Quality time
With Mommy out at a concert tonight, Sophie and I have been spending quality time together, mainly consisting of Sophie hurting herself. Okay, it was only twice, once where she tried to open a closed door with her two front teeth, and once where she tried to dismantle our couch by means of headbutts. I'm looking forward to the day when she learns to be just a bit careful in how she rockets through this hard and sharp-cornered world of ours.
Aside from checking to make sure she still had all her teeth (she did), we also went for a walk, gave her a bath, had her current favourite food (vegetable turkey casserole), bounced on the couch, tried again to break the radio, laughed at (soft) toys, smacked Daddy around with other (harder) toys, and watched what may have been Trevor Linden's very last NHL game ever. It's hard to say which caused me to well up with tears more, the moving tribute to Linden, or the sudden and unexpected giant wooden puzzle piece to the groin. It was a toss-up.
I've just finished trying to get Sophie settled down for bed. She resists so strongly - there was much wiggling and squirming, instead of the required cuddling, and much shouting at the top of her lungs, instead of the desired relaxing quiet time. And then, as soon as I gave up, and started writing this post, she seems to have dropped off to sleep. The blogosphere has far-reaching influence, it seems.
Aside from checking to make sure she still had all her teeth (she did), we also went for a walk, gave her a bath, had her current favourite food (vegetable turkey casserole), bounced on the couch, tried again to break the radio, laughed at (soft) toys, smacked Daddy around with other (harder) toys, and watched what may have been Trevor Linden's very last NHL game ever. It's hard to say which caused me to well up with tears more, the moving tribute to Linden, or the sudden and unexpected giant wooden puzzle piece to the groin. It was a toss-up.
I've just finished trying to get Sophie settled down for bed. She resists so strongly - there was much wiggling and squirming, instead of the required cuddling, and much shouting at the top of her lungs, instead of the desired relaxing quiet time. And then, as soon as I gave up, and started writing this post, she seems to have dropped off to sleep. The blogosphere has far-reaching influence, it seems.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
The musical tastes of a one-year-old
My lovely daughter just had a bite of dinner, and is sort of chilling out - the perfect mood in which to listen to some music. So I threw my music collection on random, and am sampling her reactions to some of daddy's music...
Van Halen - Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
- smiled immediately
- tapped her foot and nodded her head to the beat
- sang along with the "Hey hey hey" bit
Rolling Stones - Rain Fall Down
- more smiling
Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA
- looked unimpressed
- tried to shove her finger up her nose
- pointed out a balloon (from her birthday party)
Tony Bennett - One
- looked pretty angry
- made monkey noises
- pointed out the balloon again
Billy Ocean - Caribbean Queen
- smiled, pointing at her mouth
- wiggled around
- went into a yawning and nose-poking routine
The Killers - Jenny Was a Friend of Mine
- looked vaguely concerned
- pointed out another balloon
- started lip-syncing the chorus
Barenaked Ladies - Brian Wilson (live)
- started smiling and drumming on her highchair tray like a beatnik
- mild grunting and crying
- pretended to use a walkie talkie
Ray Parker Jr. - Ghostbusters
- happily headbutted me twice
- tried to say "Ghostbusters" at the appropriate time (came out "oh", but the intent was there)
- did that take-your-thumb-off magic trick
- tapped her hand in time (twice) during the chorus
So there you have it. Random reactions of a sleepy child to random music. Read into it what you will, although if you use this as grounds for predicting a career as a disc jockey or something, I might disagree. (Not that I wouldn't love to have a disc jockey daughter, I'd just argue about the merit of future-job-prediction based on ten minutes of listening to music. Besides, she's going to be a fish-monger or some such thing, that's already been proven in San Francisco.)
Van Halen - Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
- smiled immediately
- tapped her foot and nodded her head to the beat
- sang along with the "Hey hey hey" bit
Rolling Stones - Rain Fall Down
- more smiling
Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA
- looked unimpressed
- tried to shove her finger up her nose
- pointed out a balloon (from her birthday party)
Tony Bennett - One
- looked pretty angry
- made monkey noises
- pointed out the balloon again
Billy Ocean - Caribbean Queen
- smiled, pointing at her mouth
- wiggled around
- went into a yawning and nose-poking routine
The Killers - Jenny Was a Friend of Mine
- looked vaguely concerned
- pointed out another balloon
- started lip-syncing the chorus
Barenaked Ladies - Brian Wilson (live)
- started smiling and drumming on her highchair tray like a beatnik
- mild grunting and crying
- pretended to use a walkie talkie
Ray Parker Jr. - Ghostbusters
- happily headbutted me twice
- tried to say "Ghostbusters" at the appropriate time (came out "oh", but the intent was there)
- did that take-your-thumb-off magic trick
- tapped her hand in time (twice) during the chorus
So there you have it. Random reactions of a sleepy child to random music. Read into it what you will, although if you use this as grounds for predicting a career as a disc jockey or something, I might disagree. (Not that I wouldn't love to have a disc jockey daughter, I'd just argue about the merit of future-job-prediction based on ten minutes of listening to music. Besides, she's going to be a fish-monger or some such thing, that's already been proven in San Francisco.)
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
The "first word" conundrum
I always figured that babies/toddlers just one day said a word, and that was that. First word, plain as anything. But this whole business has been anything but clear cut.
To begin with, Sophie made a wide range of noises from pretty early on, but obviously without meaning. For example, one day when she was quite young, she said "yogurt", pretty as you please, but I'm quite sure she didn't mean anything by it. So there was absolutely no intent.
Then, she got into a mimicking stage - if you said something simple, like "mama" or "dada" or "baba", she'd parrot it back, but it was still lacking a certain something. She'd call me "dada", but she'd also call our refrigerator "dada". Very indiscriminate. But she was making the noises on a more consistent basis, so maybe that qualifies? Also, in terms of interest, "mama" or "dada" as a first word is pretty common, so it (like Holly says) lacks panache. (Holly also says her first word was "panache", but I'm not so sure about that.)
So now we're getting into the fun stage. Sophie is starting to associate people/things with words, and she's much more consistent in saying the same words, and more often in the appropriate context. This is where I figure we should be counting first words, and for the honour of first word, I put forth two candidates.
The first: "fan". Sophie loves ceiling fans, and she learned to respond to "where's the fan?" by looking up, even outside, sometimes. There were a few days where she tried to mimic us and say "fah" when we pointed at the fan, and that was pretty cool. However, it didn't stick, which is why I tend to lean towards the second option:
"Book" (pronounced "booh", like "book" but without the "k"). As first words go, I like this one. Simple, classic, memorable, and it follows in the footsteps of her bookworm parents. And what's more, she's sticking with it, and using it correctly. (Mostly. A few non-book things get lumped under the "booh" banner, although it may be that she's just thinking about books.) Holly took Sophie into a bookstore today, and Sophie was wide-eyed, looking around, pointing at everything, saying "booh, booh, booh, booh". Sweet.
There we have it. I say we go with "book", although to be fair, it's a sliding scale.
To begin with, Sophie made a wide range of noises from pretty early on, but obviously without meaning. For example, one day when she was quite young, she said "yogurt", pretty as you please, but I'm quite sure she didn't mean anything by it. So there was absolutely no intent.
Then, she got into a mimicking stage - if you said something simple, like "mama" or "dada" or "baba", she'd parrot it back, but it was still lacking a certain something. She'd call me "dada", but she'd also call our refrigerator "dada". Very indiscriminate. But she was making the noises on a more consistent basis, so maybe that qualifies? Also, in terms of interest, "mama" or "dada" as a first word is pretty common, so it (like Holly says) lacks panache. (Holly also says her first word was "panache", but I'm not so sure about that.)
So now we're getting into the fun stage. Sophie is starting to associate people/things with words, and she's much more consistent in saying the same words, and more often in the appropriate context. This is where I figure we should be counting first words, and for the honour of first word, I put forth two candidates.
The first: "fan". Sophie loves ceiling fans, and she learned to respond to "where's the fan?" by looking up, even outside, sometimes. There were a few days where she tried to mimic us and say "fah" when we pointed at the fan, and that was pretty cool. However, it didn't stick, which is why I tend to lean towards the second option:
"Book" (pronounced "booh", like "book" but without the "k"). As first words go, I like this one. Simple, classic, memorable, and it follows in the footsteps of her bookworm parents. And what's more, she's sticking with it, and using it correctly. (Mostly. A few non-book things get lumped under the "booh" banner, although it may be that she's just thinking about books.) Holly took Sophie into a bookstore today, and Sophie was wide-eyed, looking around, pointing at everything, saying "booh, booh, booh, booh". Sweet.
There we have it. I say we go with "book", although to be fair, it's a sliding scale.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
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