Speech development

I've often heard that girls develop communication skills sooner than boys and that boys tend to focus on sounds. My experiences didn't entirely convince me. Samuel started talking early, and people thought he was older because of his speech. Conversely, Elisa loves growling like dinosaurs. (Benjamin is right on the money here.)

As toddlers the boys loved singing "Old McDonald Had a Farm" in the car. We liked that it calmed them down and gave them something fun to do. They loved making the animal noises as loud as possible, and they made up sounds for unusual animals, like aardvarks.

Lisy is at the perfect age to enjoy "Old McDonald." So while driving down the road last week, we energetically launched into the first verse. She just looked at us. We tried several more animals, each with the same result. She eventually started singing, but without the animal noises. (She loves to sing, especially songs with hand gestures. "Do As I'm Doing" is at the top of her list, sounding more like "dewey doing.")

Now I'm wondering if this is indicative of her female leanings to communicate rather than make noises. And is that why the boys loved it so much? An excuse to make noise and experiment with sounds - because they're boys? Just in case it's because she isn't familiar enough with the sounds, I've been reading more animal books to her. Her favorite part of Sandra Boynton's Moo, Baa, LaLaLa is the singing pigs, of course.

Potty Training Update: Benjamin averaged 1 accident a day this past week. He even wore underwear to church today without any problems! Turns out I didn't need that quick exit strategy I planned.