No parent likes to admit her child is behind developmentally. While I’ve spent months crowing about The Bees’ physical agility I have been noticeably subdued on the topic of speaking. It's not that she hasn't been talking. Vying for airtime with her parents, her observations become louder and more urgent, but it's nothing you mere mortals would understand. But after months of little to no progress in the English language department we seem to have made a breakthrough. All of a sudden, in this 19th month, The Bees has decided to throw us a few bones. In fact, this week alone we got “shoes”, “blow”, “flower”, “freeze”, and “soup”. And of course CB and I beam across at each other, each jockeying for a crumb of credit.

As we approach the holidays (and the prospect of larger family audiences) I imagine the language tumbling out of her. Let’s not discuss the little girl at the Palisades Library story time, who was uttering full sentences at 16 months. “I want to read a book now”, she said to her caretaker in a tiny sing-song voice. I smiled through gritted teeth as I congratulated the proud nanny. Meanwhile Bees was in my lap, turning around to say one of the 9 words in her repertoire: “Mama”. Somehow it made it worse knowing that these two girls had started out on the same level back when they were 3 months old at Jonah’s Treehouse.

Of course The Bees’ favorite word right now is “No”. Actually it’s with emphasis, like “Nyoh!”. Tired of this response to his every plea for affection, CB is dying for her to say “yes”. I’d like to hear that magic word “please” for once. But of course it stands to reason - she knows we want it too much.

And I guess I have to wait until Christmas 2009 before I hear, “You are simply the Best Mummy in the whole wide world”.