I’ve suspected for several months that Saffie understands me more than she is letting on. It’s a similar feeling I have had about our cats for years. But there are 3 things that Saffie definitely understands and shockingly responds to most of the time.
1. “In your mouth” This is what I say at least 5 dozen times over the course of the day when Saffie holds her food over the edge of the highchair tray or tries to stash the food beside her. She is almost always looking at me when she does this. If I am beyond her line of sight she simply throws the food as far as she can. She is getting better and better at putting the food in her mouth when I say this to her – I’m sure this is just a phase she will grow out of. When people talk about how being a stay at home Mom is one of the hardest jobs you’ll ever have the throwing/spitting/smushing/rejecting of food are some of the moments I believe they are talking about.
2. “Can I have that?” This is what I say when Saffie is putting something in her mouth that shouldn’t be there (usually some kind of paper product) She is extremely good at giving up these tiny treasures. But if you take the remote control away from her watch out!
3. “Drink your milk” This one shocked me a bit. Lately Saffie is drinking her milk almost exclusively from sippy cups. If you ask her to drink her milk she grabs it and takes a sip of it no matter what she is up. She won’t drink a ton of it if she isn’t interested but seems happy to give it a try. Again, by the end of the week I’m sure she won’t be so excited about it, but for now it’s totally awesome!
We’re still working on “go back to bed”, “would you mind sleeping in today”, “drop the power cord”, ” are you teething or just really pissed off about something” closely followed by “please don’t bite Mommy while I check your gums”, and of course, “gentle . . . gentle”