As I was moving laundry loads this morning, I heard the sound of the game "Sequence" crashing to the floor in the other room. It's nothing new, or tragic, it happens most days. What cracked me up about it today, was that almost immediately I heard the sounds of little tiny feet running toward me, and Abby shouting at me with great concern, a mess of syllables that meant nothing.

"Abby, use your words, what do you need?"

"abba bhabba abba habba ahhhh MESS abba habba bhabba ahhhh GAME ahhhhh Help me please!"

SUCCESS! She can communicate her needs! And, it reminded me of the famous story about Joe when he broke Meg's piggy bank, and shouted to my mom, "Mommy help me *snort snort*" (Snort, of course, is the universal sound a pig makes)

Abby's growing language skills are thrilling me every day. She is a girl who knows exactly what she wants. And now, instead of shouting, if we can calm her, and ask her to use words, we can understand what it is she wants. HOORAY!

Aside from decreasing the amount of shouting in our house, it's also interesting for me to see how her brain works. If I asked you to describe something using a color word, I'm guessing you'd say "The Green ball."

For Abby, it's "Ball green." Or more often, when she's shouting for "COOKIE COOKIE" and you calm her and ask what it is she's screaming about, she'll say "Cookie circle" or "Cookie pink" The same works for crackers. "Crackers Letter" (Cheez-its with scrabble letters on them) or my favorite, "Crackers" followed by fish lips, her universal sign for fish. (Of course, Goldfish crackers!)