Baby Words

Baby
Door
Dada
Shoe
Yogurt
Appa
Mama
Down
Eat
Teeth
Look
Bye Bye
Papa (Grandpa)
No
Bird
Zoo
Bath

These are all the words I could think of off of the top of my head that Alexis knows. I am sure I have missed some, just because I am sure she has said some other words that I can't quite understand yet and she knows so many I can hardly keep up.

I have been fascinated to see how her vocabulary is just growing every day. Isn't language amazing? And the fact that we learn it, we get it? Babies don't need to be told exactly where to put their tongues and how to form their mouths. They just do. I love speaking a new word to Alexis and I can see how she is thinking about it, forming it in her mind, trying to figure out how to say it.

What a gift language is. Communication is the root of social relationship, of friendship, of companionship. Oh the joy on Alexis' face when I get what she is saying: "You understand!" She delights in being able to express herself and have another "get" her. And is this not what we all want? Isn't it wonderful to be understood, to have someone "get" us?

I think of Helen Keller who could not hear or see. In her autobiography, she tells of the absolute joy she had at discovering that the signs Annie put into her hand meant something. What a world was opened to her once she could identify objects and concepts. Her life deepened richly and her social need was satisfied.

Communication: The gift of God to people designed to fellowship. And how I love each day to come closer in fellowship with my little girl as she learns to communicate with me.