In the language department, The Caterpillar is coming along nicely. I can't help but think that that's thanks to all that worrying I did before. Almost as soon as she started talking, she began using more complex concepts in speech. While The Dormouse spent quite a long time talking about herself in the third person and saying the names of things but not incorporating them in a sentence, The Caterpillar - once she did start talking - almost immediately began using pronouns correctly and was able to communicate abstract concepts like, "I'm cold." Which only further confirms my opinion that it wasn't that she wasn't taking in and/or understanding language, but that it took awhile for the nine muscles of the mouth to develop enough to where she could form the words. Even now, she's still really hard to understand sometimes and if I close my eyes, I'm almost sure I'm having a conversation with Charlie Brown's parents. But it's clear she's working on it.

Last week she got a flu shot and proudly wore the band-aid badge of honor for at least three days before The KingofHearts tore the band-aids off in the bath one night.

"Why did you do that?" I asked.

"Because, she doesn't need them anymore."

"You have to know that it was never about the needing them, right? She didn't need them three seconds after she got the shots. She WANTS them."

"Yeah, but eventually they have to come off right?"

"OK, but you live with it."

"Live with what?"

"I think I'll go to the store for some new band-aids now."

And then: oh, the injustice to strip her of her dignity like that! And we heard about it. Because for the next five days, she repeated, "DaDee. Don'T TaKe ofF my BanD-AiD." Just like that. Hitting all the consonants with the emphasis of an elephant stomping his feet.

Over.

And.

Over.

And.

Over.

If I had a nickel for every time I've heard that in the past week, I could buy a year's supply of BanD-AiDs.

It's not that I don't want my kids to speak. I just wonder if once they learned, they could try an communicate when necessary and be quiet the rest of the time. Because Momma has a headache.