Bird

We've been working on getting Maybelle to say full sentences.  She's able to do so, with a bit of coaching--or sometimes just with encouragement--but her repertoire is limited.

However, it's expanding, and she's becoming a bit more experimental.  Here's what happened this afternoon:

We went to visit our friends Claire, Larry, Adam, and Nina (and as a fun, unrelated side-note, when she stood at the base of the steps to their front door, she looked up, saw where we were, and clapped her hands in delight!  She also said, "Boo!", as that's her favorite game with Larry.)

While we were there, Claire read the book Are You My Mother? to Maybelle.  Claire is a dynamic reader, and Maybelle seemed interested, responding appropriately to the plot.  The main character is a baby bird.  When the book was finished, Maybelle looked at me seriously, and said,

"I want to go to bird."

She was signing as she spoke, so I'm pretty sure those are the words she said.  Hmm.  I want to go to bird.  What does that mean?  Nina brought a stuffed animal bird down from her room, but it didn't satisfy Maybelle.  She looked at me and said, "I want to bird."

Claire and I tried lots of things:  "You want to hear a bird?  You want to read the bird book again?  You want Claire to make the sound of a bird?  You want to look at pictures of a bird?"  Nothing seemed to be exactly what Maybelle was wanting, but Claire sent the book home with us in case we have some sort of insight.

At any rate, we're very proud of Maybelle for her growing language skills.  And that's our "31 for 21" for today!  (Two days in a row--doing good!)