stream of consciousness

I've written about Guthrie's speech stuff before and I'm happy to report that she's doing really well. There's still a lot of frustration on both our parts because she's fairly frequently unintelligible, but at least she's unintelligible! She's still really intentional about her words, but I do notice she's babbling more. I feel like we kind of missed out on that whole baby babbling stage where there was the constant stream of almost nonsense words, but I've noticed that sometimes when Gus thinks she's alone or that no one is paying attention to her she talks constantly to herself or sings constantly. I love listening to her and her stream of consciousness. It mostly surrounds the events of the day and her family and friends. She lists everything out and is constantly taking stock of who is in her family or what her day has been like - we did this, then this, and then this. Given that she was so quiet for so long I absolutely love listening to her. I mean I think I would have anyways, but this is a really special gift to me.

The other day we were headed to Iowa City and had to stop at home first. Here's something weird - Guthrie HATES going home. About 4 blocks from our house she starts an increasingly vehement repetition of "no home no home NO HOME!!!" To say that it's irritating would be an understatement. So, we had to stop at home first. I'd prepared her for the horrific trip home that we'd have to make and I gave her a list of what we needed to do. I needed to change my clothes, pack a lunch, and get our bag of stuff. I said it maybe 3-4 times as we were nearing home and then you know what? She repeated it back to me.

This parenting moment was seconded only by hearing her say 'dude' for the first time. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a crazy list maker. I have blank books full of them. In fact, I kind of count them as journals for the times in my life when I wasn't actually journaling. And I love flipping through a sketchbook looking for a blank page (to write a list on) and finding an old list. Mostly I write the same list over and over. Or slight variations on the same list.

Laundry
Grocery store
Dishes
Email
Pick Up
Bills
Vacuum

That's kind of my holy grail. In fact I believe that if these things are ever not on a list it's probably because you've put me in The Home, where I will still probably be making lists.

I particularly love reading old packing lists. Like the one I made for Europe or even camping trips. Or the one I made when we went to visit my grandparents in Oregon for the 1st time after Guthrie was born. That list was long. Then there are the sentimental ones. Like the one I made of things to bring with me to the hospital when I was having Guthrie. I pause to read through that one every time.

Given that Gus is already making lists for herself and repeating mine back to me I think we've got another list maker in the house. John will be so thrilled. Because down deep, secretly, possibly unconsciously he loves my lists too.