"Sophie, use your words."

There was a time in the not-too distant past that I thought that Franny might never learn to speak. At 2 1/2, she could sign for "more" and say "uh-oh" and "Alyssa" and a few others I could count on my hand. Things have changed a lot since then and I am happy to report that Franny has a lot more to say than "uh-oh" and "Alyssa" these days. (However, I do wish she was saying Alyssa more, and seeing Alyssa more. We miss her!) I am so grateful for Franny's giant strides in speech. I remember a time when I was so desperate to hear what she had to say. Well, lately her words have been cracking us up.

This was taken at the bowling alley the night before Thanksgiving. Franny's a pretty good bowler. I love this picture!

Here are some of Franny's words that have been flying around my house lately:

When Sophie cries or whines, "Sophie, use your words!"
"Hi Miss Mommy" and my favorite: "Hi Miss Daddy!"
If we're in a hurry and I don't bother putting socks on with her shoes, she says, "bye-bye socks."
"Give her the hug"- then she comes up to me and hugs me.
She's learning about actions at school and she'll start running and then she'll say, "What am I doing? Running!" Today I saw her jumping and I said, "What are you doing?" And she stopped and bent over, touched the ground with one hand and reached towards the ceiling with the other hand and said, "Stretching!"
Narration for all of our actions: "Daddy sleeping." "Sophie crying." "Mommy go potty."

It's really fun to see how much her speech and language have improved. I'm so grateful for the wonderful people who work with her and help her to achieve so much.

Sophie has had some things to say lately, too. I made this in photoshop a few weeks ago but never put it on my blog because I got busy with Thanksgiving. It's a strange feeling for Bobby and I to feel so calm about Sophie's development. Of course we are grateful and relieved with how well she is doing, but it also makes us feel a little sad for Miss Franny and how hard she's had to work to learn the things that seem to come so easy to Sophie. Most of the time, we try not to compare our children, but it's not always easy.

I am really excited about Sophie's new words, though. Today Bobby was leaving and she waved at him and said, "bye!" in her sweet and tiny little voice. It was so cute!