Will it be loud?

Alyria’s been very vocal for some time now. But she surprised me recently when she posed a fully complete sentence.

We’ve been fortunate to be able to either tag-team or have grandma here to help whenever we needed to do other things, like self-care or household chores. But this past weekend, I was on my own.

I was in need of a shower, and it’d been a long time since she’d seen me in it. Fortunately this bathroom was directly across from her room so I could leave both doors open and she could see me the whole time, even with the baby gate.

I explained the plan to her... that I’d have to leave her in her room alone for a bit, but that she could see me the whole time. She seemed to understand and not have a problem with it, but as I explained the shower part, she got really apprehensive and asked, “Will it be loud?”

In my mind, I was so surprised. Correct grammar, pronunciation, and tone change. She’s definitely communicated in sentences already, but usually there’s at least a little something wrong. Although not a complex sentence, I think it’s the first (or one of the first) completely correct sentence I’ve heard from her.

Alyria’s very much in-tune with her sense of hearing. Quite a while ago, we knew we were going somewhere that might have loud sounds, so we got her ear muffs. I was sure it was going to be a battle, but she loved them. And lately any time there’s anything loud or if she anticipates something loud, she’d ask for her ear muffs. Usually something along the lines of “want earmuffs” or something like that. So it’s also amazing to hear her correlate the earmuffs with saving her from loud sounds.

Today, she did it again during dinner. She said “Mommy, I want more food please.” We’re still working with her on distinguishing between “I”, “me”, and “you”. Often she’ll say “you” when she means “me”. But at least in this instance, she surprised us by saying a completely correct sentence without us needing to correct or prompt her.