Life with Margo

Margo with cousin Caroline at Williard Park

Margo has been doing a lot of exploring of the Bay Area recently. Maia, Jake, and Margo have been trying out all of Oakland and Berkeley’s parks on the weekends. A favorite is Willard Park in Berkeley. Margo particularly likes this park because there are all sort of riding toys that she can ride on. Margo will let you know she’d like to go on a ride by repeating the word “ride” over and over again.

The Avidons first discovered Willard Park when Jake’s cousin Caroline came to town. Caroline took Margo on the tire swing and gave her lots of rides on the riding toys. Needless to say, Margo really enjoyed her trip to the park that day.

Maia, Margo, and Grandma Nancy also ventured further afield with a recent trip to the Bay Area Discovery Museum, a fabulous children’s museum in Sausalito. Margo had a great time playing in the museum’s Tot Spot, an area especially for toddlers. She loved bouncing on the waterbeds, crawling through the tunnels, dressing up like a spider, and splashing in the stream. Here are a few photos from the trip.

Margo has recently developed a strong interest in hats. Sometimes she will stand at her dresser pointing at the drawer where her hats are kept, saying “hat,” “hat,” “hat” over and over again until someone opens the drawer for her. And Maia often arrives at Margo’s daycare to find Margo wearing a dress-up hat from the school’s collection. As you can see from the video, she also loves to take something that is not a hat (like her mother’s underwear or a toy) and put it on her head and call it a “hat.” (As you are watching the video, keep an eye out for Margo panting like a dog–Margo’s version of the baby sign for dog–while she is holding her dog toy and also saying “uh-oh” when she drops the dog.)

Recently, Margo has developed a particular fondness for a Red Sox baseball cap. The hat was a gift from Boston-based friends Julie and Craig — a joke playing off of Jake’s strong dislike for the Red Sox. Somehow, despite her father’s feelings, Margo has really taken to this hat and will wear it all day long. Because of the nearly universal dislike of the Red Sox in Oakland, Maia and Jake are a little concerned that Margo’s attachment to this particular hat will make it difficult for her to make friends. So, Maia and Jake are planning to order an Oakland A’s baseball cap for Margo. Hopefully she’ll like it as much as her Red Sox cap.

Now that Margo has such a large vocabulary, it is possible to actually have a conversation with her. Here are some verbatim transcriptions of conversations between Maia and Margo.

Scene: Maia is giving Margo lunch. Margo has two bites of her grilled cheese sandwich, then stops eating.
Maia: Are you done?
(Margo waves hands back and forth to give the sign for all done.)
Maia: Do you want anything else?
Margo: Os (this means Cheerios).

Scene: Maia is putting Margo down for a nap.
Maia: Are ready for your rest?
Margo: Res.
Maia: Goodnight (puts Margo down in her crib).
Margo: Bye.

Scene: Maia is giving Margo a snack.
Margo: Mo-Mo (this means more)
Maia: Do you want more bread or more water?
Margo: Bre (this means bread).

Scene: Maia is carrying Margo.
Margo: Up, up, up, up, up.
Maia: Do you mean down?
Margo: Dow.

While it is very exciting to be able to communicate with Margo, Margo can now be very insistent about what she wants, especially when it comes to her bottle or her Os. Here is a video of her requesting Os.

One of the newest additions to Margo’s vocabulary is the word “bus.” Maia and Jake thought this might mean that Margo was following in her father’s footsteps with his love of all things transportation-related. But, Margo doesn’t use the word to refer to an actual bus, rather she uses it request that Jake sing one of her favorite songs — “The Margos on the Bus.” This is Jake’s version of “The Wheels on the Bus” that includes the following verses:

The Margos on the bus go up and down (lifts Margo up and down in the air)
The Margos on the bus go swish, swish, swish (moves Margo from side to side)
The Margos on the bus go bounce, bounce, bounce (bounces Margo on his knee)

However, there is still hope that Margo will take after her father. When reading a book about trains, Margo likes to make the sound of a train (chugga, chugga, chugga).

In addition to bus, Margo has picked up quite a few words since the last blog posting. In addition to “bus,” here are some others:

Water
Bath
Turtle
Os (to refer to Cheerios)
Bread
Banana (really just sounds like “ba”)
No (said as “No No;” more is also said as “Mo Mo”)
Hat (which she likes to say when she puts something that is not a hat on her head)
Button
Outside (sounds like “side”)