Frida says (19 months)

I love chatting to Frida. She has definitely reached the point where I would confidently say she is talking, rather than using words, as she uses sentences more often than not and can hold a conversation. 

I’m so worried about forgetting the sweet things she says, so I want to start recording them for posterity.

Yesterday I asked Frida what she was drawing. Her answer? “Many meerkats, standing, and looking, and running around like muhs!” (Muh is still her preferred word for cat, though she can say it).

Playing with her kinetic sand: “Sand melting. Melting like ice cream.” 

She can memorise the words in her books with alarming speed, finishing sentences and repeating whole chunks. My favourite is listening to her “read” Macavity (T. S. Eliot) with her daddy – “Macavity’s a..” “MYSDIDY DAT!” “He’s called the… “HIDDEN PAW!” “For he’s the… “MASTER DIMINAL!” “Who can defy the…” “LAW!!”. Everybody should get to hear a 19 month old delightedly say “Scotland Yard”.

This morning she started quoting Meg and Mog: “At midnight the owl hooted three times!”

She made my heart melt a little bit whilst playing with her adult and baby animal card game: “Mummy camel say, I want my baby camel please”.

Also playing with the card game: “Baby bear lose daddy bear. Oh daddy bear! Daddy bear hiding… with woodlice.” (There are no woodlice in this card game but she’s obsessed with them for reasons I cannot fathom).

She still likes to name things she can see: “Light green grass. Dark green benches. Two swings.” 

She has totally cracked the difference between “is” and “are”. I love watching her pause if she’s uncertain – it’s like you can see the cogs turning. 

Talking about where her daddy is: “Don’t know [where] Daddy is. Daddy’s busy working!” (I had no idea she knew the word busy).

Her commands are getting more specific: “Frida up daddy. Daddy stand up. Daddy do walking. Daddy do walking to mummy.”

Her pronunciation is improving, but it makes me a bit sad – I love her sweet way of pronouncing words. “Pit-dee” is now definitely pizza, “dood-mato” is now unmistakeably tomato. She’s growing up. 

Lying in bed full of cold, snuggled under the duvet: “Frida lying down and resting. Nice.”

She now uses the word “sometimes” correctly. It’s so sweet, and makes her sound so grown up. She also uses “might be”. 

The poor cat gets lots of “go away please”! At least she says it politely… 

I will never get tired of: “Frida loves mummy. Frida loves daddy. Daddy loves mummy.”