Monday 30 September 2013

The Power of Speech

At 18 months, Olive is a little Chatterbox. She can say plenty of words and every day see's her add at least one new one to her vocabulary. Some of these include bumbums (started as her word for gumboots and has graduated to cover all shoes), Moomoo (her sister, Meisha), Lily (her doting cousin), cracker (this is also a generalised one, and simply means she is hungry!), happy, nice, Daddy, Mummy......she gives most words and names a go, and a lot are recognisable, though some are a bit harder to figure out!

Hand in hand with her developing language comes her understanding of her surroundings. So we are starting on teaching her about her anatomy. So far she can point out her eyes, ears, mouth, hands, nose, hair, feet....and amongst these, she has learnt nevus! Or as Olive says, Meemis! If you ask her, 'Olive, where is your nevus?', she will respond by stroking one thigh (the hair is very thick there, but very soft) and grinning, saying, 'Meemis! Niiiice!' and then finding the same on the other thigh.
It really is the sweetest thing, and she quite likes the feel of it, which makes my heart swell.

Every parent is proud when their child learns something new - especially in these preschool years when their interpretation of what they learn can be quite amusing. We all love asking Olive to say or do things, and she loves the attention.
This particular thing she has learnt, that her nevus is 'nice', is something she came to on her own. We just taught her it was called her nevus, and because it was hard for her to see it, we showed her how to feel it. She thought it felt nice straight away. I love that. It is the most beautiful thing to me, seeing my gorgeous 18 month old daughter, who is different to the average person, so completely accepting of her difference. And loving it. I sincerely hope she always feels this way.

Speaking of love, I put my baby to bed last night.
'Night bubba,' I said. 'See you in the morning. Sweet dreams, love you'.
And I went to walk out.

A little voice quietly said, "lulloo Mum'.