"Mo... Nana"

Benjamin still doesn't say much: "Hi," "Ike," sometimes "dada" or "mama," but he is entering that stage when he may repeat what you say, even if he doesn't really understand it. During his lengthy time in the high chair, I got him to repeat two words, almost like his first slow, stuttering sentence: "Mo" (more) followed distantly by "nana" (banana.)

When Amanda was this age, "monana" was a regular word in her vocabulary, but, in her case, it meant "motorcycle," and, boy, was she interested in motorcycles. I'd forgotten that funny little thing, until we were sitting at the lunch table today and Elisabeth and I were giggling over Ben's copycat speech. Ben spent much of the rest of the day trying to pull himself into the standing position. I kept trying to tell him to concentrate on actually using his arms and legs, but he insisted on wasting all his energy just grunting and saying, "Up, up!" Hence, his bottom never got more than an inch or two off the ground.

What comes out of Elisabeth's mouth is generally much less amusing. At nap time, she hissed her usual, "I NEVER can sleep!" at me, just moments before taking one last, deep sniff of her blankie and nodding off. Later, Todd arrived home while she and I were preparing apple crisp for dessert. He tried to lift her off the stool, hug her and ask about her day, but she was busy baking. "Don't make me poke your eyes out," she threatened Daddy. Cute kid.