Cute Baby Talk

Carrie Ann has been talking a mile a minute, lately. Sometimes she will come out with a phrase that almost sounds like a complete sentence -- as if she has learned the sound and the meaning, but not the separate words yet. Things like "It's over there" will be "Is o-eh da" for example. "Num-num-num" means "Yummy!" or sometimes, "Yes, I would like more." When she sees letters, she reads it as, "I O I O I O" (eye - oh). She learned "My!" or "Mine", and now we are teaching her to say please when she wants something instead of grabbing at it and saying Mine! She is good at Please, but it comes out as "P'sss" "B'sh", or at best "Peesh." Not bad for 17 months! Like the other kids, she has some combination words: "Sh-yi?sh" doubles as "slide" (like in the playground), and "lights." (? is a glottal stop like in ?uh-?oh. It often still replaces final stops like the k in bike and the t in light.) Another favourite word is "guck", which means "stuck" -- this is for anytime something is too tight or heavy for her to move. She has gotten good at "that" -- "dat" as in "Mo dat!" for "I would like some more of that!" No comes out "O-oh" (often two syllables) when she says it, and Yes is "Ya" or "Yesh." "Dada" is one of her favourites, and she has also finally started saying "Mom-mom-mom" for me! She still calls Matthias "Dada" as well as Frank. Bethany is starting to come out more like "Beba-y" -- at first it was Baba, the same as baby, barbie, and dolly in general.
It has been hot here, so I made some mint-ade for the kids to drink (I had some too, of course). Carrie Ann didn't like it much, but she wanted to nurse lots because of the heat. In the evening, I asked her if she was getting much milk, because it didn't feel like she was sucking very effectively. She shook her head no. I asked if she was finished nursing, and she said no again. I asked if she was getting water, since I know the milk gets watery when I drink lots, and she nodded yes. Then it occurred to me that oils transfer to the milk, so I asked if she was getting mint water -- and she gave me a big smiley nod! Then Bethany wanted to taste the mint water breastmilk, so I squirted some in my hand for her, and tasted a couple drops myself. Carrie Ann was right -- it tasted way more like the mint water than like milk!