In the past few days, Ella has constructed sentences such as:
“Where’s our car? There’s our car!”
“Daddy! I see a motorcycle!”
“I put it back.”
“Pick me up, please.”
Mind you, none of them sound like that. It’s more like: “Weh ah cah? DER ah cah!” and “Daaaa! Ah see moh sy!” But still. Just as it was when she was first indicating that she understood words, I’ve stopped being surprised every time she puts some new construction together.
Of course, 80% of her language skills, she reserves for when only Suanna or I are present. If she knows you you’re likely to hear a little bit of her talking, but in front of strangers or even acquaintances, she clams up altogether. Not a peep. After storytime at the bookstore yesterday, she was looking for Miss Dinah, who had just read the stories, but didn’t see her anywhere. So she walked up to me and positively whispered “weh mi die?” as if she wanted to be sure nobody else could hear it. I look forward to when Ella is 15, at which point (fingers crossed) everybody will have the opportunity to hear her talk.
And then there’s times like just now, when I was asking her whether she was done with lunch and ready to get out of her chair, and she would only reply by making animals sounds . . .
