Lilli is pretty much a little imitating machine. If I blow a raspberry, she blows a raspberry. If I clap my hands, she claps her hands. If I click my tongue, gosh darn it, she does it. Hey kid, if I jumped of a bridge, would you jump too?!? Just kidding. I love that she copies me! It's fun! Although I guess now we are going to have to stop swearing and "playful hitting" in front of her. Not that we are like Super Swearing/Hitting family, but now that she pretty much knows what's going on we are feeling the pressure of having to be careful. We don't want to raise a Swearing/Hitting Child.

(OK, tangent here, isn't it weird that when babies are born they don't even know what trees or tables or mommies are yet, but eventually they learn what these things are and THEN eventually can click their tongues even??)

So anyway, she is a little imitator and I've known this, but when it comes to her language I've pretty much just assumed that the majority of it is nonsense. After all, it SOUNDS like nonsense. I thought I was being pretty logical. Well, I hate to admit it, and Bob will rejoice, but I think I was wrong. I mean, I knew she was using some words, like "uh oh," but I've been noticing lately that she often uses the same sounds over and over again, to indicate consistent things. Hey, I only have a BA in Linguistics, but that kind of sounds like the definition of a word to me! So last night I was at my parents, and I was saying that whenever Lilli sees a light she points at it and says "wazzdat!" I was saying how James the other week pointed out that it sounded like "What's that?" At the time I thought that was sweet of James to think Lilli was so smart and articulate. Then it dawned at me as I talked with my parents, that's probably exactly what she is saying! She might not now exactly what "what's that?" means in English, but it must mean something in Lilli language like "look at that!" After all, everytime Lilli looks at something interesting I say to her, "What's that Lilli?" IT ALL MAKES SO MUCH SENSE NOW. She is COPYING what I tell her, just like she should. I'm sorry Lilli, that your mama is so stupid, and that even with the benefit of an expensive although largely useless education has been discounting your brilliance all these weeks.

So, now, I've been trying to think of every sound she's ever made to see if I can decipher what she is actually saying. Maybe you can help me out:
dap! (often when pointing at something)
hazam! (when happily examining new object in hands)
bezyoom (when playing)
meh meh (when wanting something or sad)
num num num (I think when she's hungry; maybe because I say "nummy" when I feed her)
dem
ttha
bezya!

What do you think? Of course her FAVORITE word is BABY. She is such a narcissist (she loves to look at herself in the mirror too :)).