She makes some sounds that sound suspiciously like words these days. I’m not quite ready to call something her first word yet, but, for example, she makes a “hhhiiiieeee” noise when she sees someone for the first time. Often she’ll make a “doo” noise when she sees the dog and sort of clicks her mouth like “itty” when she sees the cat (kitty). It hasn’t been with enough regularity and consistency to say for certain that she’s using words, but it’s often enough that I’m pretty sure she’s trying hard to imitate our speech. She’s become such a little mimic lately. Any time J vibrates his lips, or makes a funny noise with his mouth, she’ll work on the sound until she copies it. Honestly, the kid makes complex noises that I can’t make. It’s pretty impressive. It’s sort of like Advanced Raspberry Blowing.
I had one of my first big “mommy guilt” moments this last week. We had a great weekend together, complete with a trip to the farmers market and a hike at Silver Falls. On Monday Clare was excited to see Mary and Gabriel and my mid-day update was that she was having a great day. When I picked her up at 5:15 I was met with a red-faced and puffy-eyed little girl. Mary said she had woken up from her nap a little fussy and hadn’t snapped out of it. Immediately she started smiling and laughing when she saw me and didn’t stop. I think my little girl missed me! Up until now I’ve said that Clare doesn’t miss me during the day, since she has such a great time with Mary. We are very, very fortunate that she is so loved and cared for so well. We miss her, but I’ve doubted that she even notices we’re gone because she’s having such a great time. However, Monday was the first day that I know that my little girl missed *me* and no matter how much she loves Mary (and she LOVES Mary), she wanted Mom and I wasn’t there. Sniff sniff – this parenting thing isn’t for the faint of heart.
