Sarah's language skills are developing really well and at an alarming rate - she is stringing more words together to make a proper sentence now. For example "I want to sit on your lap Mummy please" and "I can't reach it" where it was only about a month ago that she was saying "Mummy lap" and "No reach it" respectively. There are many words and phrases that are still not developed fully and only we can disseminate what she's saying. I also learnt yesterday that although Sarah has a high level of understanding about what we're saing to her, there are times when she finds it hard to disseminate what we're saying and therefore meaning...........yesterday, we had spent most of the day in the house as James and I were decorating the lounge. Sarah played happily and also 'helped' with some of the painting. After her afternoon sleep, we decided that she really needed some fresh air and exercise. Sarah got her coat, put it on and cheered "Ducks!?". "No, sweetheart, we are not going to go in the car, we are going to go for a walk around the block and see who's out and about". "Yeah!" she exclaimed and off we went "Bye Daddy, see you later!" We got to the bottom of the road "Do you want to put your gloves on Sarah? It's cold." "Yes please Mummy it's really cold". So, gloves on and we carried on walking. She was great; walking next to me on the pavement. Sarah spotted a plane..."Plane!" (pointing to it in the sky)."Oh yes, where do you think it's going?" "Going in the sky" she replied. A bit further along a lady with a dog stopped to say hello. Sarah stroked the dog and counted his legs...."two three four nine!" A few minutes later I said "We're nearly home now!" and Sarah stopped and burst out crying. I couldn't understand what had happened. She tried to tell me and in the jumbled up sentence she said "want roundabout". It was then that I realised that when I said that we were going to see who's 'out and about', she thought I'd said 'roundabout' and the whole time, she thought we were walking to the roundabout. I asked her if that was what she thought and she said 'Yes'. I explained what I had said and that she has mis-heard or misunderstood me and that we could go to the roundabout another day. Who knows exactly how much she understood but sure enough she stopped crying and we started to walk again. I promised her a lollipop when we got home and her eyes lit up!
We arrived home about 10 minutes later and Sarah took her coat off, hung it on the peg and went to tell Daddy what she'd been up to while I went and found her a lollipop......
She understands so much but maybe sometimes not as much as we think!