Shannon Turns Sixteen

This month is special because my daughter Shannon turned sixteen.  I told Tim that we've been with kids for sixteen years now.

Not so long ago, these are some of the words that came out out her mouth on a regular basis:

Paci - Pacifier 
Shannon used pacifiers till she was four years old.  People said that she will have difficulty speaking.  I found out later on that they were wrong.  Shannon spoke clearly when she was a baby, she'd pull out her paci and say, "Hi" or "Thank you" before she could walk.
Later on when we wanted her to stop using her paci, I did several tricks.  One of then is to hide it but then she'd say, "Find it."  I put a tiny bit of cayenne pepper on it and she said, "Wash it."  I can't remember now how we actually ended the paci business.

Mooneena - Formula
She called her bottle formula but it came out as "mooneena". 

Mother and Father - Mommy and Daddy
Tim and I were called father and mother, respectively.  We thought that the reason for this was that she watched "Little Bear" almost everyday when she was little.  When we'd picked her up from the nursery she'd run to us saying "Mother!" or "Father!" while some of the other kids can't even talk.  It was refreshing to hear that but then she grew up and found out that other kids called their parents differently.

Photosynthesizing - Sitting in the sun

This is a complicated word for a 22-month old but not for Shannon. One day when we lived in Hollister, as we were driving by the fields of corn, she asked me what they were.  I said, "Those are corn".  "What are they doing?"  At first I didn't know what  to tell her, but as a parent I should always have an answer.  "They are photosynthesizing", I said.  Then I asked her to repeat the word to see if she got it.  To my surprise, she did.  Four months have passed. We were in our new house in Fremont when Shannon was in the backyard.  I noticed that she was doing nothing.  Because it was hot outside, I asked her to come in.  She came back to me with a quick response saying, "I'm photosynthesizing!" I smiled with pride...promised to myself that I will tell her what the real meaning of the word as soon as she can understand.

A cloud cover appeared when she blew the candles on her Kalua-Chocolate Cake

Now, she's talking about her AP classes, colleges that she likes, driver's license, etc.  She must be really sixteen.  It is comforting to know that inside this sixteen year old smart teenager, is a picture of that little girl who used to photosynthesize.  I love you Shannon.