telephone conversation

Last week E talked to me on the phone for the first time. She had said "bye bye" to her grandma once, but this time "the penny dropped" as they say (i.e., she suddenly got it). Or at least partially. David was keeping her and called me at work. He put her on the phone and told her to say bye-bye. She wasn't saying anything, so I started babbling. I said, "Emma, this is Mommy." And she said, incredulously, "Mommy???" And then she started babbling. I heard her next few sentences as worried, with "mommy" sprinkled in there a few times. I imagined her saying, "Mommy's in the phone and can't get out." David said she was fine, not worried, and forgot about me right after we hung up.

But the next day David's cellphone rang and Emma said, "Mommy!"

Also this past week she has been saying "Daddy" again. She had stopped for a while. Now she enjoys saying both Mommy and Daddy as part of her daily narration. She'll hold up my hat and say "Mommy," or the plate David used for lunch and say "Daddy." I really like this! And it's fun to tell her "Go show Daddy," or "Ask Daddy to help you."

And she's back into shoes again. First thing every morning, she wants all of us to put on our shoes. I complied for a short time but now I argue back, "But Emma I don't want to put on my shoes yet." And David just pretends not to understand when she treks across the house to carry his big sandals to him. He just says, "Yes, it's shoes." So maybe she'll stop hassling us soon. There's one pair right now, of the shoes that fit her, that she can put on herself. She's happy just wearing one of them, for hours, if the other is temporarily missing. And she doesn't get yet that I can't wear her shoes. She keeps insisting, as if maybe I'll like hers better than mine!