Primeras Palabras

I was thrilled when upon handing Claire a small rubber duck I heard her soft sweet voice saying "pato." She also will repeat "bebe" and "agua." So, my not-so-concerted efforts of teaching her some Spanish are finally bearing fruit. It is hard to remember to talk to her in Spanish.

Speaking of language learning. I want to record a list of all the words she says by category. It may take a while, in the bits and snatches of time I have for such things.

Body parts head hair eyes ear nose lips cheeks neck arm hand tummy knee feet toes

Animals and sounds animals bird tweet bunny chick cheep monkey [mono] eee eee turtle cow moo sheep baa horse neigh duck [pato] quack mouse cat kitty meow doggie bow-wow pup puppy ruff, woof tiger grr lamb fishie

Sounds only "cah-doo-doo" for rooster and uuu, uuu for Owl gobble gobble for turkey

household/misc book hungry (hun-yee) on please two up wall candle door house home chair tape

Clothing button shirt pants tights hat scarf dress shoes snap socks zip

verbs kiss pat hug push close pull walk bounce go read open

a top-10 board-book list

Here are some of Claire's current favorite books. Many of them are thrift store finds.

The touch-and-feel books are the lightest on the literary scale, but she really likes the extra tactile elements.

Some enduring classics are: Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann-- I'd like to see this in a larger format since the pictures are very detailed --it doesn't have much text on the pages, so leaves the parents free to ad-lib. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle -- she likes several of his, but this one has tactile features. The Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown has a very catchy rhythm to its rhyme (1948), and the pictures by Felicia Bond are warm yet sharp (1989). Linda Bleck's illustrations for A Children's Treasury of Nursery Rhymes are retro-cool reminiscent of the 1960's.

Honorable mention goes to Fuzzy Bee and Friends which is a floppy cloth book, one of her first, and still a favorite. I couldn't find it for this photo--probably in the car with Mom who is away at a Lady's Advent Tea.

--Mark

Glossary

Now that Claire has a sizable vocabulary the trick it to figure out what she means.

Claire Dictionary

cah-doo = Cock-a-doodle-doo (if she says this she probably wants to read the Big Red Barn

ba-ba = bottle, can be confused with ball or baa baa sheep sound.

on or "hon" (this may mean she wants you to light a candle or that she wants to turn the light switch or that she noticed the fan or light is on.) Not to be confused with "hun" which means hungry.

push (she wants to push a door or drawer closed.)

bunny (she want a bunny graham.)

kees = kiss or keys

Read, READ!

Claire now request books by saying, "Read, READ!"
I checked out some board books in Spanish with her early last week. I can't seem to remember to use Spanish with her much, so having Spanish books around helps.
She learned the numbers 1 and 3 today. Yesterday she learned neck. and today I heard her say lace (referring to her shoelace.) She is fascinated with undoing her shoelaces.

She can walk pushing a folding chair or her "car" (thanks to her Aunt Jill.)
It won't be long now till she is officially a toddler.

Bookworm

Claire requests that a book be read to her by saying, "book." As soon as I put the book down the says, "book." This continues for a dozen or more books or until I finally distract her with some other activity. At bedtime when it is time to stop reading and go to sleep she cries and says, "book." She wakes up in the night and says, "book." Awaking from her nap the first thing she says is, "book." We are happy for her love of reading but are trying to encourage her to broaden her horizons.

On the sleep issue, last night was better. She slept from 7-12:45 then from 2:00-5:30 and 5:40-6:45. That first stretch was especially golden since us parents went to bed at 8:30. The only down side was the coughing fit and wakefulness from 12:45-2, but we all awoke much refreshed in the morning, and optimistic for the future of sleep in the Hudson household. Claire also went to bed quite easily tonight. Maybe she is learning how to sleep better.

Cough

Claire has been coughing at night for the past 5-6 nights and she gets all riled up and ends up staying awake for an hour or two. I took her to the doctor and he gave us some drops to give her at 6 hour intervals. We can't seem to get the timing right to avoid the long wakeful period though! UGH! There have been no more 4.5 hour stints of sleep either. My only reason for staying sane is that Beth has been entertaining Claire from 6 am to 9 am every morning so I can sleep in. Beth leaves on Thurs for Greece so I hope Claire's cough has subsided by then.