Author: Carrie Spritzer

The Chatterbox

We are entering the world of complete sentences over here and, wow, is it fun!

Suddenly I understand Miss Leyba so much better! I cannot tell you how awesome it is when she wakes up in the middle of the night and says “Switch Sides, Mama!” or “Owww Teeth!” I finally feel like I can meet her needs without all the guess work that parenting a little baby requires. (Okay, we’re not 100% there yet. Sometimes she says “More!” and I honestly have no idea what she wants more of.)

Hearing her express herself and finding her own voice is such fun and so darling.

I especially love her forming sentences. Let me give you some examples.

This morning she looked out the window and said, “I see fog!” Boy, was she right! It was so foggy that we couldn’t see past the blackberry bushes at the end of our driveway. The field across from our house and the hills were completely fogged in. SO beautiful. Yeah, we could see fog all over the place.

When Miss Leyba helps me unload the dishwasher she tells me the name of each item as she hands it to me: “a fork”… “a spoon”… “a knife”… “a bowl”… what a help! (I can’t get nervous about her dropping things; dishes can be replaced but building a little girls self-confidence and skill-set are priceless!)

Each day she names everything while pointing. For example: a towel, a wall, a pen, a book, a shoe, a door, a car, a cat, a baby… note the use of the word “a” before everything. That is very important, evidently.

She also loves announcing what she’s doing: “I crawl!” “I dance!” “I read!” “I draw!”

She’s mastering the art of a “I + activity + you” sentence. Such as, “I tickle you!” “I pat you!” “I hug you!” “I touch you!” “I call you.”

I think this comes from almost 20 months of my constantly putting words to the things we’re doing. I spend most of the day explaining what we are doing and naming things. At some point I’m going to stop doing this and it’s going to be a shock to her system. I have a feeling she’ll keep talking non-stop though.

Some girls are like that.

Yep, takes one to know one.

“Sing!” with blackberries

Remember Miss Leyba enjoying blackberries and ruining that cute white ruffled shirt? Well, I took a movie that day of her singing the “Happy Not Sad Song,” Miss Leyba’s version of that popular Sesame Street song “Sing.”


Video: “Sing!” with blackberries from Carrie on Vimeo.

Want to see Nathan Lane’s version of this song? Here you go:

I love Miss Leyba’s rendition. She’s got that special something…