Kids Talking

My little Stella isn't quite 11 months old, but she's definitely started to talk.  I'm not sure if she's actually starting a lot earlier than Sly did (which, I hear, is common for girls), or if my ear is just better trained to discern "baby talk" now. 

There are a few words now which I am certain she is saying, since repetition and circumstance 

have made it clear: 

mama
dada
kitty ("k! eeee!")
hi/hey
water (wa-ga) - said when she wants a drink of it, or when she sees something like a fountain
night-night (nigh-nigh) - said in an amazingly sweet voice, with a flourishing hand wave, at bedtime

There are a few others that I suspect might be words, but I'm waiting to hear them a couple more times in the appropriate context until I'm sure.


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Meanwhile, her big brother, almost 3 years old, is saying all sorts of rascally things.

Every few days, Sly pretends to be a different creature.  If anyone calls him Sly, or "big brother" or "little man" or any of the various things he gets referred to as, he becomes irritated and corrects them: "I'm a snake!" or "I'm an allosaurus!", etc.

We were checking out at a store...
Cashier: "I like your dinosaur shirt."
Sly: "It Tyrannosaurus Rex!"
Cashier: "Oh, that's nice."
Sly [affronted]: "He not nice!  He fierce!"

I found him one morning, pressing Stella into the floor and making her cry. 
Mommy: "What are you doing?!"
Sly [as if it was perfectly obvious]: "I'm saving her for later, to eat."
(I guess he was a dinosaur again that day?)
 
Sly has started to tell us sometimes - thinking it's a great joke - that he doesn't love us, or doesn't like us.
Tucking him into bed last week, he told me, "I love you.  I usually don't love you."

I've started to crack down on it.  A few days ago when he told me with a smile that he didn't like me, he got time out, and then had to apologize.  We have taught Sly, when he apologizes, to both address the person by name, and to state exactly what it is he's sorry for (example: "Sorry I hit you, Stella").  So when he apologized to me, it came out, "Sorry, Mommy.  I don't like you."

Sly loves to strum Tom's guitar.  He says he's "playing his album."  Sometimes Sky makes up random lyrics to accompany the guitar, and sometimes he sings Baa Baa Blacksheep.  My heart melts a little everytime he says the line, "Baa baa blacksheep, henny wenny wool..."