In la la land

Lexi’s favorite word these days is “la la,” which is Kiswahili for “sleep” (although I’ve also heard Desmond Tutu use it to describe himself going into retirement). I’d say it’s a concept bordering on obsession with her these days, but perhaps her grandparents (Sarah’s parents) had something to do with it when they visited Nairobi recently. She taught them the word when they were here, and perhaps that’s why she has taken great delight in it. It could also be that when Jane has trouble getting Lexi to fall asleep for her nap, she sings a little la-la-by that is just the words “la la, Lexi, la la” repeated over and over.

She is very good at identifying la la and people engaged in it (or supposedly doing it). However, strangely, she says it sometimes as soon as we go into her room in the morning (after she’s been la la all night). But at church the other day, a man a few rows back had his eyes closed while we were singing a hymn (clearly we weren’t at our usual Lutheran church). Although he was standing at the time as well, Lexi identified it with a “la la.” We were out somewhere recently, and Lexi saw a poster with a bunch of people on it. One of the people was lying horizontal, to which she declared, “La la.”

She also shows a tender, caring side when people really are appearing to sleep. A couple of weeks ago when I was ill with my mild case of typhoid, the afternoon I was feeling the worst, I had camped out on the living room couch under a blanket and in front of the TV. Lexi approached me several times, not quite sure what I was doing. But once or twice she patted me gently on the shoulder and said, “La la.”

New words learned, new connections made

Suddenly, as I wrote in the last entry here, it seems that Lexi is picking up new words, and she is continuing to do it at a rapid pace. Plus, in the past few days, she has seemed to make the connection in her head that words can be used to identify things and get things that she wants. Her new favorite words:

• up (on the list last time, but still popular, especially now that she can use it to ask to be lifted anywhere)
• "mahk" (milk): This morning Jane came to ask me if Lexi had drunk her milk at breakfast because at mid-morning, Lexi seemed to be asking for more milk. I told Jane that Lexi had gotten her usual fill at breakfast and was just practicing a new favorite word.
• "lahk" (light): This word goes with a favorite activity - turning lights in rooms on and off. Now she's having fun identifying all sorts of lights all over the place - the lights at the grocery store, a flashlight, the moon (which we saw on Friday night, full and unusually large), etc.
• uh-oh: self-explanatory

New noises

While we were away visiting some of Kenya's game parks in the past few days (see our other blog), Lexi seems to have added yet another new sound - make that noise - to her repertoir. Now she's experimenting with her upper ranges and making a squeaking or squealing noise. She sounds like a squeaky door hinge. Sometimes she'll make this squealing noise only for a few minutes, or else she'll combine it with a few of her other sounds for an interesting variety of voices.

I vowed when I had children that I would never have one - like many 2-year olds - who screach. I'm afraid that Lexi is practicing to be a good screacher when she's 2.

But what is fun about this is that she's purposely making sounds with her mouth and throat and experimenting a lot now. And now she's making some noises sometimes with some inflection - nonsense words that are spoken like real words. Will it be too long before she's actually speaking to us?

And now I can "speak" to her with one of her earlier noises - the gurgling noises she makes in the back of her throat. She recognizes well when I make this noise to her. She'll often respond with it herself. I feel like it's our own little language - just between us - but I wish I knew what I was saying!