"Mihret's Talking to Daddy Right Now..."

I am so happy that Mihret, like her Emaye and Abaye, seems to be falling in love with words.

She loves to choose lots of board books to read (we're waiting to let her hold the books with more delicate pages until she's a little gentler with them). She often tells us, or her "babies," or her bear, or her Grover, Elmo, etc., the stories on the pages. We like to read along and then pause so she can fill in the missing words or phrases.

She's got the "ABC Song" down pat - it's one of the songs she sings most frequently right now along with an eclectic mix of "Africa" by Toto, the "Numa Numa" song by that Romanian band, the "Way-O" song from the Wisconsin-based performers Colleen and Uncle Squaty's children's educational songs CD, and "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

She also can recognize four of the 26 letters by sight: A, B, C and "M for Mihret." She "read" us the first three letters off of her organic Sesame Street butter cookies box and we got all excited. As many of you know who are reading this post, Josh and I are avid readers - make that uber-bookworms - and we can't wait to share this world that is opening up to Mihret.

The sentences Mihret is saying these days are also becoming much more complex. She always speaks in full sentences now, although the grammar is a bit mixed up sometimes. She is learning about contractions ("No, I didn't!" "No I don't!") and compound sentences ("Mihret's blueberries all gone, and I need some more berries in my tummy!").

My latest favorite gem from Mihret, although I have to catalogue it under "a bit sassy"...

I stopped home briefly while on a dinner run during a weekend night shift at the paper the other day, and Mihret was eating her dinner at the kitchen table. She looked up when I came in the door, and said...
"Mama, Mihret's talking to Daddy right now. Go upstairs and read your book on Planet Bed." (our endearing term for our bed, which we pretend is a planet when we zoom Mihret to it in her laundry basket.)

Words... you never know which ones will come out next, and in what combination.

-Kara