Oh my, it just makes my heart swell to see them all together like this. What a lucky, lucky little girl to have these two adoring brothers!
Unfortunately, the reality is more like this one. Katrina doesn't want help from her brothers, and mostly pushes them away and screeches to free her hands. Too bad, 'cause it sure makes for cute photos.
"I gotta walk quick or I'll fall!!"
Julian asked me today, "Can you feel air?" I had a decent answer, I thought: "Sometimes, like with wind." Shoulda known, it was a trick question for which he already had an answer in mind, and that wasn't it. It had something to do with opening and closing your hand fast enough.
Melissa told me today that Katrina is saying "yes" and "no." That's new!
I just filled out one of these speech surveys for the Center for Infant Studies at Stanford, where I've volunteered all 3 as subjects in various language studies. Gabriel's going back this coming Saturday, as he's a particularly valuable subject in studies looking at formerly speech-delayed children.
Filling out these surveys in the past are what sparked me to make a note of their words. It was easy for Gabriel at 18 months: zip, though much of the survey includes questions about gestures they make, and words they recognize even if they don't say them. Gabriel lacked many typical gestures too, like handing you things, pointing, pretending to put clothes on. Julian, it was a lot more work, and it was thanks to this that I counted 100 words for Julian at 16 months.
Katrina's in the middle, and adding words and sounds a bit at a time. No speech delay, no speech advance, just smack dab normal.
For now I can identify the following "words" she makes:
muh (milk)
shee (shoe)
nuh (nose)
bee-bee (baby)
boo? (bird)
boo? (book)
na-na (night-night)
yay!
uh-oh
oops
mama
dada
But one thing I've just realized today is her attraction to rhythms. She loves to "count," though I doubt she knows what the numbers mean, she clearly says "fie...sih...seben..." in a sing-song tone. Melissa said today that she played the Music Together CD for Katrina today, and that she flipped when she heard the Hello song, looking all around for the group, then sat down and clapped her hands against her knees. She's only seen the Hello song in class three times!
So tonight I played our new Music Together CD (finally!) while I was feeding her, and I was floored when she imitated "beep-beep-beep" in the song "Riding in the car." I remember now she'd imitated some "tonal patterns" in class last week, but I'd brushed it off as a random accident. I don't think so now.
Then tonight as I was putting her to bed, I semi-sang, "bedtime, bedtime...." -- and to my surprise, she imitated the sounds with "na-na, na-na...".
This fascinates me. Even Julian, who loved to sing (still does), never did this. Now that I think about it, there are many times over the past few weeks that she's imitated a rhythm and I wrote it off, not believing she'd do that the first or second time she hears one. Actual words are much harder-won, they come and go and take weeks to stick, which is probably why I haven't noticed this affinity for rhythm or songlike patterns. Naturally, as a mom, my imagination runs away with me...do I have the next Christina Aguilera on my hands? (probably not!)
One more thought on brothers....it's been all over the news today that Fidel Castro has resigned, formally acknowledging a handoff of power that happened a year ago to his younger brother Rahul. What strikes me is that every time I hear the story, they refer to Rahul as Fidel's "younger" brother. These men are 77 and 81!! Pointing out who's younger hardly seems relevant at this stage of their lives!
But it is relevant, because they're brothers. Decades of adulthood, yet the relationship formed in the relatively short time they spent as children together is permanent. And we as news listeners all seem to understand what that means. Gabriel and Julian too will never transcend the fact that they'll spend 16 years of their lives in the same household with Gabriel being 2 years older.
But will Katrina survive 14 years of her life with two older brothers in the same household? Will they?!
2/19/08
1 comment:
That third picture is GREAT!
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