Talking up a storm...

I haven't done a very good job of keeping this post updated...and I realized today (on my commute home...which often is the only time I have alone to think) that I really need to do a better job of keeping it posted. It's my "online baby book." Seriously. It's the only place that I have a record of all of Marissa's milestones...

My child is a talker. It's become so apparent in the past few weeks that she is talking more than kids her age typically do. Of course, since she's our only child...I don't realize these things until it's pointed out to me.

First, her doctor (at her 18 mo well baby visit) is asking us all the routine questions about eating, sleeping...yada yada yada. Then she asks whether Marissa has 5-10 words. What? Matt and I look at each other then proceed to tell the doctor that she knows just about every word. In fact, we look around the room and figure that she can say at least 15 things JUST IN THAT ROOM! Let's see...some of the things in the room that she knows: chair, mommy, daddy, trash, every body part...seriously...all of them, so that in itself is over 15 words...phone (and the associated "hello" and "bye bye") water, book, blankie, Rissa (that's what she calls herself)...that's about it. There's not a whole lot in those exam rooms.

On that same topic...I don't make it to her daycare very often anymore. Since Matt's not working and my job continues to be insane, he does the dropoff/pickup on most days. Recently I picked her up because he was going to the Thurs night Ga Tech game. I asked the teacher how she's been doing, and asked her if she talked their ears off. She said "Marissa talks a lot. She talks much more than the other kids." Hmmm. I find it fascinating, but she knows all the other kids names. When I walked in the room, she was excited to see me and ran over to another kid and pointed at her and said "Amy" as if to show me that she had a friend. Too cute.

We recently went to the lake with our friends Amanda and Matt (and their kids Andrew and Caitlin) and Amanda's parents. She immediately loved Caitlin, who is 4. It's so weird to see her developing relationships with other kids...I love it. She still looks at me and says "Andrew. Caitlin." As if asking me when they're coming back. Anyway, we saw Amanda the following weekend and she said to me "I think Marissa might be really smart." It seems funny to me that an 18 month old can be assessed as "smart"...but I digress. So I said, "really?" And she said "my mother said the same thing and was shocked that she can count to 10." I guess that is pretty unusual? Like I said...I don't know these things. I just assume that she's in the range of normal. And she IS in the range of normal...maybe just on the early talker path. And her counting to 10 is usually: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10.

She also sings songs with me...my favorite is her rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. My particular favorite is the way she says diamond -- "di-mon." SO FREAKING CUTE. I wish that I could remember forever the way her voice sounds now and the way she talks. My memory sucks, though, so hopefully just reading this blog will be enough.

She is just truly so fun...even with the temper tantrums (which are few and far between yet very very very loud and long when they do happen) and I love watching her grow and change every day. She's not like me or Matt. She is just her own (chatty) person and I think that's fabulous!!