Learning to speak "Toddler"

So ... time flies when you're parenting a toddler, working various part-time jobs, and trying to figure out your way in a new city.  It's hard to believe that it's been over a year since we've moved to Burlington ... and now we're most certainly the parents of a toddler.

In the past few months, Lorraina has gone from tentative steps and vague quasi-language to running, climbing, dancing, and creating her own little dialect.  Examples of her "Lo-speak" include:
                       *"BukkaBaa" = Uncle Ben
                       *"Zhaaa" = Jack
                       *"Way!" = Wesley
           ..and my current personal favorite,
                       *"Bee-oh-baa-bay" = spider (made with accompanying motions for 'ItsyBitsySpider')

In the last week or so, she's picked up "No," "Please" ("pwee"), and "Thank you" ("aan oo").  Of course, the "no" is pretty darn clear and the rest are a bit mangled.

She's got some awesome animal noises, even if her cow-moo and elephant trumpet are just a bit too high-pitched.  We went to the county fair and she had a great time "baa"ing at the sheep and making "eee-aaww" noises at a few donkeys.

She uses some sign-language, too.  Her favorites are "milk" (and what I can only assume is "MILK!" when its done emphatically with both hands), "more," and one that she seems to have made up all on her own, "bacon" (pats head).  This one is (I believe) from an evening where she decided that bacon, in addition to being delicious, could also be worn as a hat.  We don't wear bacon-hats here at home, and she doesn't watch a lot of tv (mostly Red Sox baseball) ... so I have zero idea from whence this fascinating nugget of toddler-linguistics evolved. 

It's quite incredible to watch her assert her self-hood and independence ... although, I must admit that it's often frustrating as well.  Is that parenthood? Trying to let them become the best "them" they can ... without harming themselves or others?  *sigh*  Tough stuff.  (And it'll only get tougher, if the current trajectory is to be believed.)

And in other news, this particular branch of the Rutter family is embiggening once more: the newest addition, the Sprout, is due November 30.  Now, far be it from me to count on due dates, seeing on how the last one went down (I had plans, dagnabbit!), so when folks ask I just tell them 'Winter' or 'end of November-ish.'   We're very excited about things (Zac was excited first, I was ... wearing normal non-elastic clothes! getting settled into a new life! not quite ready, yet! ... but now I am enjoying the little kicks, jumping-jacks and squirmles and looking forward to meeting our little guy.) ... Lorraina likes saying that there's a "bay-bee" in my bump, but she has NO IDEA what's going to happen.  How could she?  Neither do we.  It'll be a wave of chaos and love and we'll ride it: sometimes gracefully and joyfully, sometimes barely holding on, teeth clenched, eyes squeezed shut as we are propelled onward into the future.

Until next time,
Love,
A&Z&L

Our cute little Monkey at 19 months.

LoLo says 'Wheee!'