Emelie is learning things so quickly these days that I'm constantly surprised by words she knows.
For example, the other day I said "sleeve" (just in passing; I don't even remember what I was talking about) and she pointed to her sleeve. When did she learn sleeve?
Or how about "bean"? My mom calls one of her cats Bean, and we spent some time at her house calling for the cat. Later, someone mentioned beans (the kind you eat) and Eme called "beeeeeen! beeeeeeen!" just like when we'd called for the cat.
The number and variety of words she understands (and repeats) amazes me, but even more amazing are the connections I can see forming when she shares her understanding. We've had a lot of laughs out of things that Eme mishears or misunderstands as her brains makes these kinds of connections.
For example, we have a groundhog living out in the back of our yard. One day we were pointing out the window and telling her it was a groundhog. The next time it appeared and we said "groundhog" she said "hu" and hugged herself. She thinks we're saying "ground-hug."
Another good one was when Andreas was talking about planting bamboo in the yard. Eme practiced saying "baboo," "beboo," "babo," and multiple other forms of the word right in a row. Finally, she ended the performance by wanting me to kiss her on her knee. The knee that she'd scraped a few days earlier. Her "boo boo."
My favorite by far, though, is a new book we've been reading with her. She likes to act out the book (ask her what Findus looks like when he gets scared of the badger; the face she makes is hilarious!), plus it's in Swedish so I don't read the words so much as reading the pictures. Once as we were "reading" it I pointed out that the man is making coffee.
Eme made a noise in her throat that I didn't really think about. The next time we read the book, Eme got very excited when we reached that page, pointing to the coffee pot and making the noise in her throat again. She was coughing. She made the connection to a word she knew -- she understood that he was making cough-ee.
Amazing.
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Sunday, June 28, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Where did it all go??
I know, I know, I haven't been posting much lately. I assure you, though, that a lot has been going on!
I just wanted to leave a note saying that I plan to write some posts soon (how about one on things misheard, and another on why I heart Dr. Karp; any other subjects you want to hear about?), and post some more beautiful but hilarious pictures.
Now that I've put this here for all to see, I'll have to motivate myself to find some time for blogging soon!
I just wanted to leave a note saying that I plan to write some posts soon (how about one on things misheard, and another on why I heart Dr. Karp; any other subjects you want to hear about?), and post some more beautiful but hilarious pictures.
Now that I've put this here for all to see, I'll have to motivate myself to find some time for blogging soon!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Super Powers
As you know, Eme has super powers.
I wouldn't want to reveal all of them (so there will still be surprises if an evildoer should happen to read this and then go up against her), but here is a short list of some of my favorites:
1) Multiple Forms: She has the ability to make herself look like many different, usually hilarious, things. (See Wonder Baby Wednesday posts for some examples.) She can cause laughter, confusion, or an evil-doer to stop in his tracks with one raise of the eyebrow.
2) Heart Melting: Really, I've seen it happen. We'll be walking around, minding our business in the grocery store/restaurant/neighborhood/etc when someone walks past looking grim. One look at Eme and they break into smiles. You can practically see their hearts melting. And don't get me started on the first time she said "DaDa" to Andreas and really meant it; it was like that scene from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (the cartoon version) when his heart grows a bunch of sizes and bursts through the frame. If she were to come upon an evil castle, I think she could turn the inhabitants to good with this power alone.
3) Laser Vision: She can spot a bus or a dog from all the way down the block. Sometimes she can tell us the school bus is coming even when it's around the corner. Either her vision (and hearing) are fantastic, or she is summoning the bus. We'll have to see how this one develops before I can be sure of all of the applications.
4) Animal Sounds: She makes excellent animal sounds, currently including a meow, bark, neigh, pant ("tired dog"), elephant trumpet, and sometimes an owl sound. I imagine more sounds will be forthcoming soon. This could be useful when she needs to imitate an animal to cause a diversion or alert someone to the presence of a bad guy.
5) Blinding Cuteness: Self-explanatory. I mean, how many times do you find yourself rubbing your eyes after looking directly at her face? The use of this one should also be obvious, and when combined with the ability to melt hearts, almost unstoppable.
6) Cat Herding: She can get cats to run in the opposite direction when she comes close, so if she gets onto the correct side before she starts to run at them, she can get them to go the way she wants. She usually ends up herding them down the basement. If she can perfect this (maybe in combination with the sonic scream), I feel like cat herding could be of great use when fighting evil, assuming the cats choose to show up to the fight (that is, as long as it's not during their sleep time).
7) Extreme Empathy: She feels sad when someone else is sad. This happens to the extent that she sometimes begins to cry herself, or at least looks concerned and tries to determine the cause. When cousin Viktor was visiting, he bumped his head the first day here. After that, every time he started to cry she'd point to her head, wondering whether he'd bumped it again. Could this one be used to bend evil warlords to her will when they realize that she really DOES care that their parents didn't understand them?
8) Sonic Scream: This amazing sound emanates from deep within, and she uses it to attempt to stun animals, other children, toys, dada, machinery, or anything that is moving that she would like to get a closer look at, or is in any way excited about. For now, the scream sometimes causes people/animals to scatter rather than to freeze in place, but she's working on it. A lot.
How have you been applying your super powers lately?
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I wouldn't want to reveal all of them (so there will still be surprises if an evildoer should happen to read this and then go up against her), but here is a short list of some of my favorites:
1) Multiple Forms: She has the ability to make herself look like many different, usually hilarious, things. (See Wonder Baby Wednesday posts for some examples.) She can cause laughter, confusion, or an evil-doer to stop in his tracks with one raise of the eyebrow.
2) Heart Melting: Really, I've seen it happen. We'll be walking around, minding our business in the grocery store/restaurant/neighborhood/etc when someone walks past looking grim. One look at Eme and they break into smiles. You can practically see their hearts melting. And don't get me started on the first time she said "DaDa" to Andreas and really meant it; it was like that scene from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (the cartoon version) when his heart grows a bunch of sizes and bursts through the frame. If she were to come upon an evil castle, I think she could turn the inhabitants to good with this power alone.
3) Laser Vision: She can spot a bus or a dog from all the way down the block. Sometimes she can tell us the school bus is coming even when it's around the corner. Either her vision (and hearing) are fantastic, or she is summoning the bus. We'll have to see how this one develops before I can be sure of all of the applications.
4) Animal Sounds: She makes excellent animal sounds, currently including a meow, bark, neigh, pant ("tired dog"), elephant trumpet, and sometimes an owl sound. I imagine more sounds will be forthcoming soon. This could be useful when she needs to imitate an animal to cause a diversion or alert someone to the presence of a bad guy.
5) Blinding Cuteness: Self-explanatory. I mean, how many times do you find yourself rubbing your eyes after looking directly at her face? The use of this one should also be obvious, and when combined with the ability to melt hearts, almost unstoppable.
6) Cat Herding: She can get cats to run in the opposite direction when she comes close, so if she gets onto the correct side before she starts to run at them, she can get them to go the way she wants. She usually ends up herding them down the basement. If she can perfect this (maybe in combination with the sonic scream), I feel like cat herding could be of great use when fighting evil, assuming the cats choose to show up to the fight (that is, as long as it's not during their sleep time).
7) Extreme Empathy: She feels sad when someone else is sad. This happens to the extent that she sometimes begins to cry herself, or at least looks concerned and tries to determine the cause. When cousin Viktor was visiting, he bumped his head the first day here. After that, every time he started to cry she'd point to her head, wondering whether he'd bumped it again. Could this one be used to bend evil warlords to her will when they realize that she really DOES care that their parents didn't understand them?
8) Sonic Scream: This amazing sound emanates from deep within, and she uses it to attempt to stun animals, other children, toys, dada, machinery, or anything that is moving that she would like to get a closer look at, or is in any way excited about. For now, the scream sometimes causes people/animals to scatter rather than to freeze in place, but she's working on it. A lot.
How have you been applying your super powers lately?
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Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Wonder Baby Wednesday #5
Wonder Baby Powers, activate! Form of.... Wonder Bread Baby!
We don't feed her the stuff*, but labeling her with the sticker from the novelty sandwich box was a great opportunity for a funny Wonder Baby Wednesday picture.
*Particularly after an experiment where a number of slices of the "bread" lay in the yard, stubbornly not decomposing, for over a month.**
**I want to be clear, after having read an article about whether mommy bloggers are in the crosshairs for doing "product reviews," that this is in no way meant to be defamatory; anyone who still wants to eat it is certainly welcome to do so. In fact, I know many people with fond childhood memories that involve a slice of enriched white bread, some butter, and a coating of sugar. I'm just saying that I don't want to eat it, and therefore Eme will be missing out as well. :)
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