Out of the mouth of babes

You've all seen these email forwards with the cute little things that kids say, and while I don't quite have some of those gems, Aaron and I have been enjoying watching both girls develop in their communication skills.

Lauren is slowly but surely starting to say a few words. Her first words were "hi" and "bye bye". Whenever the phone rings, she looks for it, and says "hi" over and over. And she knows when to say "bye bye" as well. When she's ready for me to go at day care in the morning (I have a tendency to chat with Miss Gwen), she'll look at me and say "bye bye" and occasionally blow me a kiss. She says "momma," and she's recently added "uh oh" to her vocabulary. She makes a sound kind of like a dog barking to signal dogs and has some sort of sound more like a cat hissing for a lion roaring. In addition to saying more, she's also understanding a lot more. She knows who people are and can follow simple directions, like "let's go upstairs" or "put your milk in the refrigerator".

We've been trying to get her to say "dada" lately, and we laughed today as while we were trying to get her to say it, Alyssa spoke up and said "You say Alyssa, Lauren?". She really wants her to say her name too!

And Alyssa...what to say about Alyssa's language, but wow! She's come a long way in a year. At least once a day she comes out with something that just makes us laugh. Here are a few of our favorite "gems" from Alyssa from the past few weeks:
*"Actually Daddy, it's Momma's turn. You read me books last night."
*"You go outside [the bathroom], this is going to be a stinky one." (She'll kill me someday for this!).
*"You on-line grammy?"
*Me (after Alyssa went to the bathroom, she's wearing a pair of Lauren's shorts): "Pull up your shorts."
Alyssa: "No mommy. You need to say pull up Lauren's shorts."

I know there's many more, but it's been a long weekend, and this is all I can think of for now. If more come to mind, I'll add them to the list. I'm loving this stage for both of them!