I forgot to mention

Edith Emily is in the habit of practicing new words upon waking, every morning. One morning she woke up, rolled over, smiled, and said, "Grah....Pah," a bit shyly. She is reticent with her new words, they tend to be a bit fragile until strengthened by repetition. But in the calm of morning, after everybody has gone off to work and the house belongs to us and the animals, new words are free to float out of her mouth, syllable by syllable. It is so fascinating to see how she breaks everything down into simple syllables, building blocks of English. A couple of days ago I was reminding her, not so gently myself, to be gentle. "Gentle, Edie, gentle! PLEASE!" while fending off miniature slaps to the face. She recently learned how to give a high five, but not that the high five is best limited to another person's hand only. She high fives my face, my chest, my belly, and then tugs my hair for good measure. After being headbutted in the mouth one too many times, I found myself yelling, "GENTLE! GENTLE! BE GENTLE WITH THE MAMA/CAT/BOOK/etc!"
And she tentatively mouthed, "dehhhh...teh," which sounded just like the way we say gentle, drawn out while we show her what a gentle touch looks like.

Today was my favorite new word day so far. She woke up, stretched, and rolled over to find Siddhartha heating the bed beside her. She patted his fur and said, "Dah...tha."
She said it several times more, and when we went out to tell Grandpa, who stayed home sick from work, the news, she demonstrated her new prowess with language by swaying her hips in rhythm with the word. "Dah....tha. Dah....tha. A-Dah....tha."

What a joy to know this little person, and watch her grow, tumbling out from herself in new directions every day. Thanks, Life. I am lucky beyond measure.
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