Speaking in "Leyla"...

Leyla was just a few months old... I want to say around 4-5? She grabbed on to my arm, shakily pulled herself up to look me straight in the eye and said, "MAMA"... My throat swelled up and my eyes started to water... I could hardly contain myself at that moment. It was one of the sweetest things ever said to me in my life {Of course, "Will you marry me?" is right up there too. Haha!}.

It's amazing...  by around 18 months old toddlers have a vocabulary of about 5-20 words... By the time they are 24 months old, that number jumps to about 150-300 words! What I really find endearing that they {Leyla} will sometimes name an object the sound it makes. I want to be able to speak this language... Wouldn't you love it if I said to you, "Dada called on the "hello" and said that he's driving in the "beep-beep" and will be bringing home a "meow" that he found by the "choo-choo" station"?

There are certain objects that are distinctively "mama's" or "dada's"... I find it funny that whenever she sees a Perrier bottle she calls it "dada water" {"water", by the way, sounds more like "wallow"}... Those of you who know Mike well know that he will order Perrier everywhere he goes... He's been known to bring his own to his mother's house when we are invited for dinner. Ha! Whenever I pick Leyla up from school and we pass by the janitor's vacuum in the hallway, she points at it and says it's "mama's". Which is funny... She makes me sound like a crazy lady who follows her around with a vacuum as she eats snacks {Ummm, OK that's sort of true. YOU try cleaning up the millions of cheerios that get scattered around after one "snack time"! Haha!}

The cutest thing ever is that every morning as I buckle her up in her car seat, she'll look towards the garage door/backyard, and say "POOR DOGGIES"... She loves them something fierce and I guarantee she'll ask me one day if she can take them to school with her...  

And then I'll have to say, "Sorry Leyla, no "woof-woofs" allowed at school... "

Happy Wednesday!

{Leyla after she overthrew Mike from his chair at the dinner table...}

{Hehehe, victory is mine...}

{Hooray!}