Girl Talk

Paisley and I were enjoying a few minutes of one on one time before she went down for her nap, and we had a great conversation going on. I'm not really sure what we were talking about, but Paisley was really getting into the discussion! 

Obviously we weren't actually using words to exchange thoughts or ideas, which is what you probably would think of as conversation. Miss P is way to little for that. But, we did spend several minutes talking back and forth to each other. Along with being cute and fun, this kind of thing is actually very good for a baby. According to "What to Expect the First Year" (and I'm not directly quoting here because I'm too lazy to go dig out my book) when you mimic the sounds a baby is making and turn it into a "conversation", you are helping the baby in several ways. First, you are showing the baby that what she has to say is important to you and you will listen to her when she wants to talk to you. This helps to build up her budding sense of self worth. Also, it shows the baby how a conversation goes. She says something, and then your respond and wait for her to say something again, and so on. While you may not be using a single real word, you are helping the infant to learn the proper protocol for interacting socially in the future.