Leaps and Bounds

I've been meaning to post this for about 4 weeks. You can see how well I've followed through! ;) I have been so impressed by the language development of my 16/17 month old. I love this stage. Language is so interesting to me, and not just foreign language, but all of it!

"Bist du muede? Willst du ins Bett gehen?" (Are you tired? Do you want to go to bed?) I asked her. I got the MOST ardent head shake ever! I could hardly keep from laughing. It was so fun to have her answer my questions and to know she understood exactly what I was asking!

Fast forward 4 weeks...we've gone from fervent head shakes to this...

We can ask her ANY question, and the answer will almost certainly be "nein" or "nein, nein" if she really means it! Now, sometimes she knows exactly what we're asking. But other times, she clearly doesn't. I would say that she at least knows it's a question, but today she may have proved me wrong. I'm not sure. We were on a lengthy car ride home from Lisa's (daycare) which was taking longer than usual because of traffic. I knew she was getting impatient and told her "Du bist so ein braves Maedel Claire, weil du so geduldig bist." (You're being such a good girl Claire, because you're being so patient.) At this point, I'm just trying to talk to her to keep her mind off of us being in the car for too long. To this, she replies "nein, nein." So one of two options - 1. she understood I was calling her patient and replied that she's not really that patient, more like on edge, or 2. that she had no clue what I was saying. At first I was thinking 2. for sure, but then I thought of other times. If we're driving and I ask her if she wants to sing or if I start singing a song she doesn't want me to sing, she'll tell me "nein." Then, if I ignore her 'no' and keep singing, she'll adamantly say "Mama...Mama....Mama!" until I stop. So, she doesn't just tell me no when she is answering a question, but also when she does not like what I am doing. :)

A couple times a day, by the way, we do get a 'yes' (which is not a word she actually says yet, but just nods). We also get a lot of "peas" (combined with sign language) for please and just recently "bitte" for please. And even with all those no-s, I'm still having such a blast with my girl at this stage in her development! :) Matt and I are both so proud of her and pretty much think she's really smart (remember, we're her parents)! ;)