The Most Unlikely of Times

Thanks to my sister, I found a great way to waste half an hour today before taking E to the park. What did I do? I made myself into a Disney princess. Yup. Check it out:

I'm fairly pleased with the result, myself, but the best part came when E saw it up on the screen.

E: 'Ussat? (What's that?)
Me: That's me. It's a picture I made.
E: Issyou! (It's you!)
Me: That's right!

Oh yeah: my 16-month-old recognised a Disney cartoon of me. I'm officially impressed. I'm also impressed because it's the first honest-to-goodness conversation I've had with him that didn't involve sign language or playing 20 Questions. He spoke! With intelligible words!

Sure, in the past he's deigned to say things like 'penguin', 'upside-down', and 'clap'...and he knew what he meant. But each of those occasions were isolated incidents and he refused to repeat himself later on. He'll sign please when he wants things and thank you if he remembers, or is prompted, but real sentences are practically here! He even tried saying 'braces' yesterday when I snapped his braces onto his jeans.

His comprehension is great: he knows how to differentiate the zebra, monkey, elephant, and crocodile in his wooden Noah's Ark set. He can point out his eyes, teeth, hair, ears, tummy, feet, and little boy bits. When prompted, 'what do you say?' he knows to ask politely by signing please. He even knows that when I hear him mucking about in the kitchen, if I say, 'do you need to put that pasta back in the drawer?' that the bag of macaroni he's filched goes in the bottom drawer, and the drawer gets closed. I know kids are meant to understand much more than they repeat back, but I'm always impressed by how much he seems to get.

Oh, and if you, too, would like to waste some time getting Disney-fied, here's the link for you.