Talking up a storm

Another update coming soon since we have news galore, but first an update on the girls...

The chatter in this household is unreal now. I love listening to them chat in their room. It's incredible to communicate with my children and receive responses that I can decipher easily. "Are you thirsty?" is greeted with vehement head nodding, and then, "Milk!" or "Water!" or "Cup." Okay then, my loves. I'll take that as a "Yes, please, mom."

"Are you tired?" is greeted with the word, "doedoe" (sleep) and "bersie" (blanket) while they lay down on the playroom floor. Got it. Time for a snooze.

"Are you hungry?" is greeted with them running to the triplet feeding table, or pointing at the fridge.

When they're done eating dinner, I ask, "And what happens now?" With one voice, they say, "Cookie! Cookie! Cookie!"

Me, "And what would you like now?"
Emma is usually the first to respond with, "Melkies!" (milk) and soon the others join in a little choir.

They're starting to repeat "asseblief" - the word for please and "dankie" (thank you). The hysterical thing is, they are already prompting ME to say thank you. This morning, hubby handed me my coffee, and Julia said, "Coffee." And a second later, she said, "Dankie!" There could be worse things she could be repeating or prompting me to say. LOL.

These kids are starting to say more complex words like, otter, dolphin, penguin, and koala. Julia says, "koo-lala" which is so freaking cute, I can't stand it. The Afrikaans word for penguin is "pikkewyn" and the three of them each pronounce it differently:

"Pik-kyn" (Emma)
"Pik-e-yn" (Julia)
"Puh puh" (Ada)

They're saying, "fiets" (bicycle), "truck" (Julia's new favorite word), "trekker" (tractor), "boat," "helicopter" ("copter"), "bus" and understand "plane" but do not say it yet.

They're always excited to see their toothbrushes and say, "borsel" (brush - for hairbrush and toothbrush), but are less excited once we actually start brushing teeth.

They know words like "door" and "bird" and since they know all the body parts, we've moved on to joints, like "elbow," and "ankle." I've been teaching them, "wrist" and "hips" but they don't get or say those yet.

They know "ring" and "horlosie" and pronounce it "losie" (wrist watch). I rarely wear earrings anymore, but I did this week, and soon, Julia and Emma were saying, "belle" (oorbelle).

Emma is such a little chatterbox now, and knows the plural and dimunitive form of many words. It blows me away. She'll say and use them appropriately, which is even more astounding. "hasie" (rabbit) and "poppie" and too many others to recollect. She also very clearly says, "uitklim" (to climb out) if she wants to get out of the feeding table or out of her crib. It sounds like, "uitblim" but it's very distinguishable.

Ada has made huge strides with her speech the last few weeks. She is now saying words like, "house," "duck," "milk" and our dog's name (a two syllable word) very clearly, whereas before she was just saying the first syllable of any given word.

At the beginning of June, we went to a parade in our town. When Emma saw the horses in the parade, she was in disbelief! She bounced up and down in the triplet stroller, pointing like crazy and shouting excitedly, "Horsey! Horsey! Horse! Horshey! Perd! Neigh! Neigh!" until they disappeared around the corner. Julia blew raspberries like a horse and said, "neigh! neigh! neigh!", and Ada clicked her tongue to immitate the sound of their hooves.

Emma touches her chest and says, "Emma" and then points to me and says, "Mamma." Whenever anyone else visits, she'll point to me repeatedly and say, "Mamma!" and wait for people to acknowledge her. She's just letting everyone know that I'm her mama. Love it.

They say our friends' names, "Rinda, Famke, Lukie, Carly, Kathy, Nancy, Chris, Steve, Judy, Leigh, and many more. The girls love looking at the photos on the camera after I've taken pictures, and will identify the people in the photos.

I can not get enough of how cute they are right now. I'm trying to absorb it, because soon enough the tantrumming will be adding to my gray hair. Tantrums are already a fairly regular occurence, but for the most part, I'm able to ignore/redirect or figure out that they're tired/hungry and go from there.

This afternoon, Ada tripped and bumped her lip against the Cozy Coupe. Julia and Emma seemed alarmed by her crying, and said, "Huil!" (to cry) and then proceeded to each give Ada a kiss. It was just the sweetest thing.

They often want the same toy, and will try and shove or head butt, or reach to pull hair to lay claim to it, so I'm constantly redirecting and saying, "Gently. We share. We don't do X - we do X" (fill in the blank as I'm distracting them with what I DO want them to do). It is exhausting, so when there are kisses and hugs doled out without prompting, it's extra sweet. It often feels like I'm directing WWF.

It's simply adorable how they've bonded, and how they sometimes hand one another something. Ada mostly uses this like a decoy technique. "Here! You take this shiny object - dangles it in front of her sister - so I can play with the toy I really want." I wonder where she has seen that. (Laughing!)

Miss Ada sleeps less, and wakes before anyone else. Yesterday morning, my husband was up with her, changed her diaper, and gave her a sippy, but didn't close the nursery door behind him. Next thing he knows, Ada did a 180 and is standing in front of Julia and Emma's cribs, going, "Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi!" incessantly, until, of course, they woke up. Mission accomplished.

This week, Ada has also figured out how to hang and swing from the overhang of our kitchen island. An amazing feat and not one that I want to encourage, but one that I secretly take pride in. She now has such amazing control over her little body which she didn't have just a few months ago. It really is something to celebrate when this child, whom we weren't sure would walk, pulls stunts like that.

Today, Emma and Julia tried it too, with mixed success. They're a bit shorter...