So Much to Say

Eleven Katya things...

1. While eating dinner, I hear her commenting "Peas, nice, peas, nice..."

2. Whenever running across a room or through the house, Katya goes "uuhhhh" to hear how her voice bounces with each step.

3. I like watching her when she's a distance away. When she's in fast motion, it reminds me of those early silent movies where people seemed to move herky-jerky. She's like that, only miniature.

4. Lately she's into counting things. After 1,2,3,4 it's a toss up whether 5, 6 or 9 comes next.

5. Her little matter of fact commentaries on daily life usually consist of two words. "Emu sots" (rainbow socks), "tappy mins" (stripey mittens). As she was getting sick with a cold, suddenly her observations bumped up to three words. "Mama shoe off" when we came back from a walk. Now they're mostly back to two words.

6. Her vocabulary expands every day. But sometimes she points across the room and confidently says a word that sort of resembles two or three words in the English language, but none of them are anywhere near where she is pointing. I get about two tries to identify what she's saying before she starts crumpling in frustration.

7. Last week, she told her first joke. I was getting her ready for a bath and she was excited about it. (As usual.) She started naming all the parts we were going to wash: "Wash hands, wash head," etc. "Wash room." Giggle, giggle. "Wash lotion, wash light..." and so it went.

8. The other night she noticed I only gave her a fork with her dinner and no spoon. "No shovel," she said sadly.

9. When I made pizza, I let her have the extra sliced olives. She loved them. She called them "Deereereerios." (Cheerios.)

10. One recent morning she suddenly started referring to herself as "Gaga". Before it was always "Dada". (It took Brent awhile to get used to that.) She has not gone back to the old way. It's almost like she's changed her name.

11. When she's sitting on my lap as I read her a story, the wispy hairs that stand straight up on her head make the urge to scratch my chin and nose irresistible.

Easter 2007