Andrej, Jessica, Kaiya and Tobi

Over the last month or so Kaiya’s vocabulary has really taken off. I don’t think I will be able to even list all of her new words because it seems like each day she says something new and then uses it over and over again. She also just recently started repeating a lot of what we say. It’s really cute as Andrej and I have a conversation and every couple of words Kaiya will repeat something that caught her ear. She has also started to put two words together and form somewhat of a sentence. Her latest was the other day when Andrej had finished changing her diaper and was getting her dressed. Kaiya looked up at him and exclaimed, “Pants, On!” Andrej and I were both amazed and praised her for creating a sentence, and then Andrej quickly got her pants on so she would know that we understand her.

There are a few words in particular that she uses a lot and are worthy of mentioning in this post because we hear them many times throughout the day. Every morning the first thing Kaiya says isn’t Good Morning, or Mama or Dada, it’s, “Ya-ya bow, Bear bow!” as she pats her head. She repeats this saying over and over until one of us puts a shiny hair bow in her hair and attaches one to her beloved bear’s ear. After that all is right with the world and we can continue with the day. Throughout the day she reaches up and touches the bow and exclaims with great joy, “Bow!” She says it perfectly.

The funny thing is that she received the hair bows in her stocking on Christmas, but refused to wear them. Anytime someone would try to put one in her hair she would shake her head and say, “No, No!” One night after we were back from our Christmas vacation, Kaiya found the package and wanted Andrej to wear one of the bows. He asked if she wanted one, which she promptly replied, “No, No!” Andrej took her over to the full length mirror and showed her how to put it in her hair. He explained everything he was doing and told her how pretty it would look. I was getting dressed in another room and listened to this conversation taking place between a daddy and his daughter. It brought tears to my eyes. Especially because Andrej was against putting bows in Kaiya’s hair and was probably the reason she was wary of letting anyone put them in her hair over Christmas. In his defense he said he was picturing huge fluffy bows and not small clips.

Kaiya did allow him to put the bow in her hair and the obsession began. They came in to show me the bow and I of course told her how pretty she looked as well. Now, anytime she hears the word “pretty” no matter what we are referring to, she immediately touches her bow and exclaims, “bow!” I’ve tried to explain that someone or something can be pretty without a bow, but she doesn’t agree. Kaiya thinks everyone, even inanimate objects should wear bows.

Shortly after the bow is in place, Kaiya usually asks for her tutu. For some reason she usually whispers this word, and will continue to do so until her fluffy pink tutu is around her waist. My mom mailed this tutu along with some new clothes recently and Kaiya LOVES to wear it. Thus being the reason most of Kaiya’s pictures lately include the tutu. She loves to play dress-up and wear hats and accessorize with bags draped over her arm. I’m sure as she grows so will this pastime.

Over the last few months Kaiya has been very much into giving possession to things. She walks around a room touching things saying, Mama, Dada, and Ya-ya depending on whose thing she is touching. She always points out each persons chair at the table and says, "Dada, sit (ssssssit). Eat. Mama, sit. Eat. Ya-ya, sit. Eat." She also loves naming people she knows. We play the game of “Who loves Kaiya?” and “Who does Kaiya love?” often. She rattles off each person, Mama, Dada, Papa, Baba (Babka), Bear, Elmo, Ike (my brother’s dog) as I keep asking, “who else?” We really need to get this on video as it is the most adorable conversation. “Papa” is by far the most precious word she says because she whispers it every time. As she does with any “P” word, pig is “pi” and pear is “peh” both whispered so softly.

Kaiya has started referring to her beloved blanket as “Meh-Meh.” We aren’t sure if she is calling it “meh-meh” because sometimes I refer to it as a manket, although I think I started doing that after she started calling it “meh-meh”, or if she is saying mine. Either way, she yells out “meh” over and over getting louder and louder until we locate it. Her “meh-meh” and “beh” (bear) must always be close by or she starts calling out for them. Those two items bring her so much joy and you rarely see her without one or the other or most of the time both.

Kaiya has also started counting. Well, at least she can say the number two. Unlike tutu, this one is not whispered, but said in a very deep voice with emphasis on the “eewwwww”. I will say, “one” and Kaiya quickly chimes in with “tuh-eeeewwww” and then I continue. She will repeat after me when I get to eight, nine and ten, but won’t try any other numbers. She really does, however, get the concept because if you have two of something and you ask her how many _____s do I have, she will reply, “Tuh-eeewwwww!” Also, if she sees two of something that she knows how to say, she will say for example as she points to our towels in the bathroom, “Tah-ow.” Then point to the second towel and say, “Tuh-eewwwww.” Very cute!

Kaiya loves to name all the objects in a book or around the room that she knows how to say. It makes reading her books a very long process, but we are both proud at the end when she rattles off so many words. Some of her best ones are girl (gull), clock (kak), moon (mahn), lamp (amp), bird (bur), bunny (buh), apple (ap-pah), milk (muck), Elmo (Ehmo) and when she is ready to read a different book she exclaims, “Nes!” which is of course, next.

Kaiya has been identifying her body parts for months now by pointing, but just recently started to name them. She can say eyes (ice), elbow (ehbow), toes (toooh-es), knee, hand (hah), belly button (beh-buh), back (ba), arm (ah) and booty (boo). She has yet to say nose, which to me seems like the easiest of them all, or ear. She is so cute as she uses her wash cloth to bathe each part and tells me what she is washing. She will say, "ehbow" as she washes the first one and then say, "nes" as she moves to the other elbow.

I could go on and on as it really seems she learns new words everyday. Like this morning, I walked into the living room and Kaiya was wiping the coffee table saying, "Mess. Mess." I heard Andrej call out from the kitchen, "Kaiya don't tell on me!" Andrej had just accidentally spilled some of my coffee on the table and quickly grabbed a cloth to clean up the mess. Kaiya thought I should know that daddy had made a mess instead of her for a change!

This language explosion has been so much fun as Andrej and I often say, "Did you hear what Kaiya just said?" We also double over in laughter at some of the things that come out of her mouth. Who needs a television when we have this kind of entertainment in our house!