Jasmine 101

I haven't been writing much lately, partly because I didn't feel like there was much to say. "Jasmine's adorable, Bekah's practicing standing..." you can only say that so many times before it feels really boring.

But I was reading my friend Kimberly's blog about her life in China, and I realized that I'm learning a lot too. Maybe nothing like they are, but it's almost as interesting.

Jasmine's language and brain are a world of their own. She has a few words that all sound the same, and she doesn't know how to differentiate, though the has only one of them in mind.

For example, Dirty and Charity sound the same. She just keeps saying it until you figure out by context which she's talking about.

Much more frustrating is "sews." She meant "Cheerios" or some other cereal, but had one specific one in mind. She now says "Cheerios" so if she says sews, we know it means some other cereal.

The current one we're trying to figure out is la. La could mean Cinderella (she likes the last sound if the word is too big), Granola or umbrella. And you'd better know which one she wants.

The funniest thing about it is that she knows she calls them the same thing. Yesterday she asked for la and pointed to the tupperware of granola. Then when I was getting it for her and putting her in the high chair, she asked for la and pointed to the TV (and even suggested clicker so I knew how to turn it on!).

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So Bekah isn't left out...
She now has standing completely mastered. She can get herself up to standing in the middle of the middle of the room with nothing to grab. She gets into a squat and then uses her adorably chubby quads to pull up to standing. If her balance is this good already, it's likely that she'll just pick up and start walking in the next couple weeks. If she's on Jasmine's timetable it will be September 20th (7 1/2 months on the nose) but I wouldn't be surprised if she beats that. And here I thought she'd be closer to the average in when she started doing things. The joke is on me!