Do you find that tracking and observing infants and toddlers language acquisition to be fascinating?

My granddaughter is about 2½. She has spoken for a while now, but just in the last couple of weeks she has moved into :chatty cathy” mode – saying whatever comes to mind and using sentences and new words that she has heard.

It’s fun – every time I see her (about every 2nd day) she surprises me.

Yeah…I remember my daughter, when she was about 2½, referring to an event that had happened 6 months earlier, when she didn’t have to vocabulary to express it then, when it happened. I think I have it written down. I remember exactly where we were, in the bathroom, and she was standing on the toilet and she just made this comment. Can’t remember what it referred to then.

She is all but turning over, @Dutchess_III. Next will come crawling and sitting up. She is beautiful. Such a delight to watch the video. Thank you for posting. My theory is that all babies, including your adorable granddaughters and grandson, are all doing one thing. They are all looking for the car keys. It is amazing to watch these tiny bundles. They truly are sponges.

It’s a fascinating study. Try putting a recording device, which starts automatically at a sound, under the bed of the 18 month. You’ll hear her practicing language sounds.
Get a book on language acquisition. It will tell you about the sounds that babies learn first and how it varies among world languages. I’m glad you are enjoying the process.

I recorded my kids speech every six months or so while they were growing up. It’s all on cassette tape.

Here is information on Speech and Hearing milestones.

LOL!! I agree @bkcunningham! They’re looking for the keys and/or the TV remote! Actually, the twins have been turning over for a couple of months now. They’ve been scooting around in circles, and sometimes back wards. Yesterday Savannah got up on her hands and knees! Kale did that two days earlier. It’s so interesting watching twins.

I am so much more aware of what these little changes are leading up to than I was when my kids were small. Maybe it’s because as a new mom, you simply can not envision this warm, clean, snuggly little bundle turning into a 6’4”, full grown MAN who’s going to be driving your car someday (and screwing it up, hoping you wouldn’t notice. ‘CHRIS!! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CAR??? IT WON’T STEER!!!”
“Um. Well, um…it was icy….um…”)

I’m going to send that link to Corrie @hearkat. Thank you!

That’s one of my favorite things about being a mom. I have loved watching her go from barely being able to track things with her eyes to this little girl participating in conversations any way she can.

My granddaughter just turned 4 in May and she’s had a couple of potty accidents. Her Mom says she’s at her wits’ end trying to get her totally potty trained and my poor granddaughter has been bribed, shamed, fussed at and praised throughout the process. It is what it is. (IMHO she waited too long to try and potty train her but that’s another story.) I told my stepdaughter we will all get through this. Relax. I guarantee that she won’t be 16 having accidents in her pants.

We went swimming the other night and when my granddaughter was getting undressed I noticed the remnants of an accident in her little panties. She started apologizing and said she was still a big girl and she was sorry and she wouldn’t do it again and on and on and on. I laughed to keep from crying and said, “You know what Addie? Just yesterday you learned how to crawl, how to sit up, how to walk, how to feed yourself, how to talk. You learned your ABCs, you can sing and dance better than anybody I know. You are learning how to swim. You can just about read. You are learning to eat different things and you are learning to control muscles to hold your pee pee and poop. You’ll get the hang of it before you know it. Don’t worry so much about it.”

It is amazing to think about what a child learns during the first few years of life. Amazing. I’ll be 52 if I wake up tomorrow morning. I’ve spent the last 40 years trying to learn just a few things about myself, about love and about life-and they haven’t completely sunk in yet. I still have accidents and say and do things I wish I hadn’t done and said. I wish I could learn with the same absorption and simplicity as a child.

Yeah, @bkcunningham. My grandson just turned 18. I flash back to the time he was 2, and his biggest thrill was sitting on the dinner table.

Sounds like your daughter is giving way to much attention and shame to the potty thing. My kids had a few accidents for various reasons. I always “sympathized” with them…“Oh, I’m so sorry! How embarrassed you must feel, AND uncomfortable. Come on. I’ll help you clean up.” I’d have them get clean pants and we’d go in the bathroom and I’d instruct them, step by step, how to clean up, including emptying the #2 in the toilet before rinsing their underwear off then hanging them up to dry. They didn’t like that so much! Again, I’d sympathize, “Yeah, it’s gross! But it has to be done. Poor baby.” They quit having accidents, pronto…but I NEVER got angry with them. Never.

When my daughter was 2½ and had been fully trained for a couple of months, she wet the bed for some reason. She was SO upset! The next night she did it again because she was so worried about doing it again! At that point I told her it was OK, it was just an accident, and I had a plan. I went out and bought a box of diapers and put one on her every night at bed time until they were gone—about a month. It allowed her to relax and not worry about it and at the end of the month she was fine, and no more accidents.

Sage advice, @Dutchess_III. Thank you.

I wasn’t giving advice, actually. I was just talking. ;)

I took a course at my university. Highly interesting and proving that we are one big human community.