Thursday, August 09, 2007
Daddy Carry Baby Stairs
The other day Ellie and I were heading up the stairs to get her ready for bed. She had her baby doll with her and was clutching it tightly with both hands. That made things difficult for her, because she hasn't really gotten the the point where she can climb stairs without holding on to something for support. After realizing what a pickle she was in, she looked around for a way to solve her problem. Then she looked up at me, held out her doll, and said:
"Daddy carry baby stairs?"
In the first place, I was surprised because I didn't know she knew the word "carry." That's nothing new, though--she surprises me with heretofore-unbeknownst-to-me vocabulary all the time (recent surprising words have included "butterfly" and "pillow").
But far more significant than that, here was a complete sentence coming from my little girl. And unlike the complete sentences she's said before (in order of their occurrence: "I love you Daddy/Mama," "I did it," and "I'm going downstairs"), this sentence was not prompted by a parent beforehand. We painstakingly taught her how to say "I love you" (it's still kind of "I ub oo"), and both "I did it" and "I'm going downstairs" were direct responses to "You did it" and "Are you going downstairs?" respectively.
But "Daddy carry baby stairs" was 100% unprompted and original. It shows my little girl is getting to the point where she can have a thought ("I can't make it up the stairs if I'm holding my baby, so I should ask Daddy to carry the baby for me") and then come up with the words to express it in a complete sentence. Let me tell you, that's awesome.
Of course, I gladly took the baby from her and she held on to the railing and made her way up the stairs. At the landing, I handed the doll back to her and she scurried off to put it to bed.
"Daddy carry baby stairs?"
In the first place, I was surprised because I didn't know she knew the word "carry." That's nothing new, though--she surprises me with heretofore-unbeknownst-to-me vocabulary all the time (recent surprising words have included "butterfly" and "pillow").
But far more significant than that, here was a complete sentence coming from my little girl. And unlike the complete sentences she's said before (in order of their occurrence: "I love you Daddy/Mama," "I did it," and "I'm going downstairs"), this sentence was not prompted by a parent beforehand. We painstakingly taught her how to say "I love you" (it's still kind of "I ub oo"), and both "I did it" and "I'm going downstairs" were direct responses to "You did it" and "Are you going downstairs?" respectively.
But "Daddy carry baby stairs" was 100% unprompted and original. It shows my little girl is getting to the point where she can have a thought ("I can't make it up the stairs if I'm holding my baby, so I should ask Daddy to carry the baby for me") and then come up with the words to express it in a complete sentence. Let me tell you, that's awesome.
Of course, I gladly took the baby from her and she held on to the railing and made her way up the stairs. At the landing, I handed the doll back to her and she scurried off to put it to bed.
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