Little Conversations, Big Changes

What a change in Annie's communication over the last week or so! She has turned what used to be short, curt words into little mini-conversations (whether we can understand them or not). I was trying to figure out today how to describe this, and this is my best shot: I will often simply talk to Annie, no matter what I'm doing, describing WHAT I'm doing, you know? Well, now, when there's any pause in my monologue, Annie inserts her own input, with correct inflection! Often, I can't understand these little conversation points, but I always act like I do, anyway. ; ) When she can really talk, she's going to be quite the talker. : ) Another example is that when I turn off the water after her bath, Annie puts her arms in the air, says "all done?" with the question inflection, and puts one leg over the side of the tub. In other words, "Are we all done, Mamma? Is it time to get out?" LOVE it!!!

And, perhaps even more exciting, are the games of her own creation that Annie initiates. #1. The Face Game: this often spontaneously happens when I'm holding Annie and she begins naming the different parts of the face: "ah," "ear," "no," "ma." Her favorite is definitely "nose."
[And now I have to mention how Annie is also beginning to share little memories with us. For example, whenever she plays the Face Game, she almost always says, "Papa" right after she says "no" [nose]. I believe this is in reference to the many times that Annie was fascinated with Papa's nose when he was here (this is also when she was perfecting the Face Game).]
Even though this picture actually isn't representative (Annie usually plays it with me), here is the only way I could get Annie playing the face game: going back and forth between Daddy and Cherry Chat Chat. Here she is pointing to Cherry's nose. : )

#2. Animal Sounds: any time she sees an animal, whether in a book or in her vast toy collection, she makes the sound of that animal (or at least attempts to make the sound). Before today it was cow ("mmmmmmmmaa"), sheep/lamb ("baa"), horse (here she makes a spitting sound that I think is supposed to be a horse "blowing," at least that's what my Amish friends call it), donkey ("ye-ah"), pig ("ngk" she makes this one with her mouth totally closed), duck ("cack cack"), . Today she added kitty ("meow") especially in reference to Leia's meowing kitty named Lucybell and monkey ("oo" "oo") especially in reference to her new Five Little Monkeys book (that's even the way she requests the book) and dog ("bark bark" which is funny, because I always say "ruff ruff"). No luck with goat or frog yet. : )

And to my dismay, because many of these things happen spontaneously (and while I'm holding Annie), I have been totally unable to capture many of these things on video. (Thank goodness I have that one Animal Sounds clip!) Perhaps I'll get lucky one day, before these precious times have gone . . .

But what I DID get on video today was one of my very favorite sign combinations of Annies. I can't believe Annie has already learned the meaning of "please," but now she actually signs it when appropriate! Here she is signing "more please" in reference to more sliding: