An amazing thing about babies and toddlers is their language development. Even though I am home full time I am still in awe of the things Baby #1 knows. However, since her speech is in the developing stages it's hard for me to understand her and even harder for others to understand her. I often act as translator for my husband.
A frustrating situation that happens almost daily is when Baby #1 asks for something and I just don't know what she wants. She'll repeat the words over and over and I end up telling her that I don’t understand her. She usually ends up in tears or just toddles off and finds something else to do. I'm convinced that she walks away thinking that I'm the dumbest person on the planet and how was I ever allowed to take her home from the hospital.
Recently one afternoon she requested "apple sauce" clear as can be. So I took out the little individual cups of apple sauce and proceeded to feed her. After two bites she looked up at me and said "apple sauce" while pointing to the cabinet. I assured her that she was indeed eating apple sauce, but after a few more bites she refused to eat anymore and continued to say apple sauce.
This pattern continued for two weeks. I thought maybe she wanted the flavored apple sauce. So I purchased just about every flavor imaginable so I could offer her a choice. I'd give her two choices and she would say "no, apple sauce." I wasn't sure what to do anymore so I just started ignoring her.
One weekend hubby was feeding her and she made her usual apple sauce request. I told him to just ignore her, but he was convinced that she wanted something else. He stood her on the counter and opened the cabinets to reveal all of her snacks. So there they are - she's whining apple sauce, he's pointing to all the snack choices and it hit me. Baby #1 really did want apple sauce, but she wanted it in the squeeze pouch so she could feed herself. However, we had none in the cabinet to prove my theory.
The next day we made a trip to Trader Joe’s. I needed to find out what she really wanted. In the store I put her down in the aisle where the apple sauce in containers and pouches are next to each other and at her eye level. I put the shopping basket down next to her and told her to pick the apple sauce she wanted. She proceeded to drop 3 boxes of the pouches into the basket. It was a small victory for me and I was so happy to have figured it out (even if it did take 3 weeks.) And back home we went to open up as much apple sauce as she wanted.
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