today's favorite millie-isms

ho-ho-ho, bippus! (ho-ho-ho, merry christmas)

more! bippus! house. 'ights. (she loves all the houses with christmas lights)

mooo, what? (kitty, what? said whenever ziggy meows - I'm afraid she learned that from us!)

Woowww! (said with such adorable gusto and excitement)

one and two, and two and one, and one! (she loves to count -- at least to two!)

moof. mubbis! (If You Give a Moose a Muffin)

pay, mommy. hann. (said while taking my hand and leading me to where she wants to play)

hat, on! (obviously, said when she wants her hat on -- but my very favorite is when she wants to put the lid back on something. I just love that she calls lids 'hats', because it totally makes sense!

Watching Millie discover language is the most fascinating, entertaining and amazing experience. It stuns me that a little person can go from no comprehension of language - beyond its cadences and rhythms - to immense understanding, sentences and a rapidly-increasing vocabulary in just eighteen months. I know we all do (give or take some months) but to actually see it happen day by day - and sometimes even hour by hour - is absolutely incredible. We often talk about intelligence as something to obtain, as a goal reached sometime in adulthood, as a process. It is these things, in a way. But to watch a child learn language is to glimpse intelligence in its most raw, most powerful state: instinctual, unadulterated, exquisite. It's so exciting to witness it, and I feel so fortunate to be a part of it!