Yes and No

The biggest change in our family dymanics in the past few weeks has been because of Anna's use of the words "yes" and "no". It started a couple weeks ago with her using a very sweet version of "nnooo", mainly if she was playing and something didn't fit right or if she was responding to a general question. The following week her favorite word was "yah", which she would use to respond to almost any question, whether or not the answer was really yes. (FYI ... Anna's been communicating her yes and no to us for a few months by various head nods and other sounds, but this is the first time with the real words.)

In the past few days, "no" has become the favorite, in a very forceful way. We've seen the fiercely independent toddler emerge once again in our home. Now if Anna doesn't want to wear a certain shirt or coat, or have her face wiped after a meal, or put clothes on after a bath, or stop playing a game, etc., etc. we hear "no, no, NO!". Of course we know this is a stage like any other, but Matt and I were commenting this weekend that it seems like we've hit this new stage without any transition time :) Oh, well. Life goes on.

Of course, Anna's language is not all about yes and no right now. If we thought she was having a language explosion a month ago, I'm not quite sure what we'd call this one. Anna's adding several words to her vocabulary each day now, though she doesn't always use the same ones from day to day. She's even started initiating two word "sentences" like "Daddy caw" (Daddy's car), "no fit" (for shapes that don't fit in a shape sorter), "moh peas" (more please), "Mommy shoe" (for Mommy's shoes, boots, or slippers), and a whole host of other combinations. It's great to be able to communicate more freely about life with her.

For example, this morning we went to the grocery store before music class whereas for weeks we would make our weekly trip to the store right after music class. I tried to explain this change on our way, but when we pulled in the parking lot of Woodman's, here was our exchange.

Anna: "no, no, no"
Me: "No, what? What's the matter?"
Anna: "cass"
Me: "Did you think we were going to music class?"
Anna: (pause) "yah"
Me: "We're going to the grocery store first, then music class today. Okay?"
Anna: (pause) "yah"

And life went on.



Besides talking up a storm, Anna loves to play games these days, especially Matt's fast paced ones. The other day Anna thought it would be fun to climb into an empty diaper box which was hilarious to watch in itself. Gross motor skills are not this child's strongest point; I think the climbing in was literally head first.


Matt thought it'd be a good idea to turn the box into a race car and push Anna around the house as fast as he could making fast car noises. Of course Anna loved the experience, until they had to stop because they were tearing up the box on thresholds. So ... Matt made some modifications ... with Anna's help ... and off they were again :)


On a final, random note, we did our taxes on Saturday and I had the odd realization that the 2008 tax year was the first year since 1994 (I'm pretty sure that's when I first started working at the Ozark House ...) for which I did not receive a W-2 form. Weird, huh?