It's stuck.

Mike has been telling me that Maeryn can speak, that she has a vocabulary of seven words. Having never hear an coherent word spoken from her lips, I didn't believe him. Sure, I've heard cooing and screeches that Mike can distinguish as "thank you" and "bye bye," but any normal human would be hopeless trying to communicate with Maeryn.

Today he needed help taking asphalt that had been ripped up from his back yard, to the dump. I'm not sure what it was with the previous owners of houses along this street, but paving over the back yard seemed to be a common theme.

Since Maeryn was still in town (Liza being at camp, and Kate being at the UPA's Board of Directors annual strategic planning meeting), Mike needed a babysitter during his dump run. He brought her over, we chatted, then he left. As he was stepping away, I had approximately nine seconds to distract her enough that she didn't realize the last person in her family had left, and although he was coming back, she had only my shoulders to cling to.

So, distract I did!

Realizing we had no toys for her to munch on, I tossed her into the air a few times (she's heavy - that kid is dense!), then wandered over to her house to find toys to distract her. We spent much of the time in the play room with various toys and books. She was willing to be distracted, being a Baby Klingon only momentarily.

At one point, she was playing with a My Little Pony, and dropped it. It landed between my leg and the arm of the futon we were sitting on. Maeryn reached down, grabbed it, and pulled up. The pony didn't budge, so she looked up at me and said, "It's stuck," sounding like, "Ist studt," in an unbelievably adorable little girl's voice.

I looked at her, and realized I was dumbstruck that not only had she spoken her first words to me, but it was in the form of a complete sentence. I screached in enjoyment and praised her. When Mike arrived home, it was his turn not to believe me when I told him the story.

Of course, the true test would be for something else she wants to become stuck, and have her announce that, too, is stuck. Haven't tried the experiment yet. Having too much fun tossing her into the air and listening to her giggle. I have to do that a lot now, before she becomes too heavy for me to lift.