Sunday, July 15, 2007

Stuff of dreams

Dear Alex has been growing by leaps and bounds, and she's been having a lot of wonderful experiences lately - but even the day-to-day stuff is very important to her, and it's coming out in her monologues and dreams. The monologues have been going on for quite a while - for a few months Dear Alex almost always started the day early (for us - say, 7:30 am or so, but she didn't demand that you participate - she would simply talk to herself and her friends in the crib for a while before she noticed that she was wet, hungry or alone. She would have a great conversation with herself and her stuffed animal friends, mostly unintelligible, and punctuated with a laugh or squeal, and a recitation of the things she's done recently - "Alex up and down, bunny bunny mmm,waaah! (that's an Alex air kiss), it's okay, walking sandbox fountains! Tricycle shoes daddy!
It's almost as though she was rehearsing the words and language that she was going to use during the day, and experimenting with the sound and feel of saying things. It was kind of a fun game for Beautiful Wife and I to figure out what she was talking about, and what those murmurings over the baby monitor meant. She certainly was having fun, and it's been delightful to listen to.

Fast forward to the past few weeks - as her verbal and cognitive skills have increased, the dreamy delight of her morning conversations have given way to more urgent and specific calls for "mommy and daddy! change diaper cup of milk! change diaper! cup of milk! Mommy here daddy here!" It begins as a murmer and builds to a tirade of angry need - that sounds a bit negative as I write but that's not my intention - Dear Alex is nothing but sheer delight, and it's been interesting to listen to her find and use the words for what she needs. As the words come easier and more clearly, it's been gratifying to listen to her remember and talk about the things BW and I do with her, and how much of it sticks and gets played back as she grows.