I know I've forgotten to add some words (sorry, Henry!) but one of the cutest words Henry says is "moon" because he looks at the moon very excitedly and wants me to say "I see the moon and the moon sees me; God bless the moon and God bless me." When I say that he gets the biggest smile on his face. So I say it about 15 or 20 times again.

We have a poster just outside his bedroom door that he also loves when I read it (most times when we leave his room) that is from Arnold Lobel and reads: "Books to the ceiling, books to the sky, my piles of books are a mile high. How I love them, how I need them, I'll have a long beard by the time I read them."

Spoken Words: Anna, bird, elephant, Dada, car, balloon, ball, moon, truck, boat, eye

Signed Words: waves goodbye, cat, drink, fan, light, all-done, car, phone, bird, elephant, more, train, book, eat, monkey, hot, bear, dog, airplane

Sounds: moo, quack, elephant trumpeting, train whistle, car motoring

Posted by Becky at 11:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Henry added bear, dog, and airplane to his list of signs this past week. He still really isn't talking all that much (he is making noises but his list of spoken words is smaller than I think the girls was at this age) but he can definitely hear. When I tell the girls it's time to get their shoes, Henry will go sit on the bottom step and wait for me to bring his shoes to put on him! He will also toss his pacifier in his bed when I ask him to and go to his high chair when I ask him to do that. He is such a good little listener right now (so different from the girls who seem to have tuned out my voice entirely!).

Spoken Words: Anna, bird, elephant, Dada, car, balloon, ball

Signed Words: waves goodbye, cat, drink, fan, light, all-done, car, phone, bird, elephant, more, train, book, eat, monkey, hot, bear, dog, airplane

Posted by Becky at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have to keep the colander/tupperware cupboard locked so it still has some mystique when it's time to start preparing a meal.

Henry added "dada" to his list of words today. He has also been saying "ar" when he signs "car" the past week or so. Henry gives me a high-five after he drops his pacifiers in the crib after his nap, too.

Spoken Words: Anna, bird, elephant, Dada, car

Signed Words: waves goodbye, cat, drink, fan, light, all-done, car, phone, bird, elephant, more, train, book, eat, monkey, hot

Posted by Becky at 8:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Henry signed "hot" tonight when I was telling him to stay away from the grill while I was making dinner. Smart and handsome: he's the total package!

Spoken Words: Anna, bird, elephant

New Signs: hot
All signed words: waves goodbye, cat, drink, fan, light, all-done, car, phone, bird, elephant, more, train, book, eat, monkey, hot

Posted by Becky at 9:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Henry is the best of the three kids at signing "monkey"—he is very animated with it. Hopefully we'll get a new little camera soon so I can make video again!

I also feel like he was really trying to say "dump truck" the other day but am not adding it to the list just yet.

Spoken Words: Anna, bird, elephant

New Signs: monkey
All signed words: waves goodbye, cat, drink, fan, light, all-done, car, phone, bird, elephant, more, train, book, eat

Posted by Becky at 9:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today in Kindermusik we were singing a song about a train and at the end we all made a train whistle noise and immediately after, Henry copied the noise, "wooooowooooooooooooo!" He was also giggling during the massage part of the class. He is so very adorable.

Posted by Becky at 9:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Henry was signing "more" for "eat" and so I focused on correcting that this past week and he's finally got it. Everywhere he sees food he signs like crazy (although now he has taken to tossing a whole lot of his food on the floor during meals and snacks!).

Spoken Words: Anna, bird, elephant

New Signs: eat
All signed words: waves goodbye, cat, drink, fan, light, all-done, car, phone, bird, elephant, more, train, book

Posted by Becky at 8:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Henry is adding some more: I can't remember if I mentioned already that Henry makes car noises when he plays with toy cars. Also, he is signing train and book. His signs are not super clear yet but he is getting better!

Spoken Words: Anna, bird, elephant

New Signs: train, book
All signed words: waves goodbye, cat, drink, fan, light, all-done, car, phone, bird, elephant

Posted by Becky at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Henry is signing "bird" and saying a "buh" noise along with it (sometimes). I'm counting it along with the "eh" noise for "elephant."

All spoken words: Anna, elephant, bird

All signed words: waves goodbye, cat, drink, fan, light, all-done, car, phone, bird, elephant, more

Posted by Becky at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think Henry's first word is "Anna." Occasionally Sarah, Henry, & I will be at the breakfast table waiting for Anna to come down and I've shouted up to her "Anna!" Today, I did that, then Sarah did, then Henry chimed in!

Spoken Words: Anna

New Signs: more
All signed words: waves goodbye, cat, drink, fan, light, all-done, car, phone, bird, elephant

Posted by Becky at 9:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Henry still doesn't really say any words but he is adding more signs! He also makes his toy airplane fly around and makes noises with it although every time we've seen an airplane in the sky he never seems to see it!

New Signs: car, phone, bird, elephant (he also sometimes says "eh" for Elephant but I'm not sure if I'm counting it just yet, he usually makes the trumpeting noise though)
All signed words: cat, drink, fan, light, all-done

Posted by Becky at 1:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Henry has a puzzle with a bee on it and he always picks the bee up and flies it around the room and says, "bzzzzzzzzzzz."

Posted by Becky at 2:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Henry stood on his own without holding onto anything today. I don't think he realized what he was doing but hopefully this is the beginning of something!

Also he started signing fan, light, and all-done. He got a little confused when he was holding onto a fan from the 4th of July parade and I said something about his "fan." He looked up at the ceiling fan and clearly wondered why I was bringing that into the conversation.

New Signs: fan, light, all-done
All signed words: cat, drink, fan, light, all-done

Posted by Becky at 9:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Henry will be eleven months tomorrow but since we're leaving for Minnesota in the morning I took the bear picture today. I think he is signing "cat" and "drink" now but I don't hear any words yet although he does babble a lot now.

He is a super-fast crawler and getting faster with cruising although he doesn't really want to walk when I try to take his hands and walk with him.

Signed Words: Cat, drink

Posted by Becky at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight as I was helping the girls with their bedtime-bathroom routine, Sarah turns to me and says, "Let me tell you a story." Surprised, I said, "let's hear it!" Here is her story:

"I walked up to a wall. I bumped into a wall."

We had just read Days With Frog and Toad before this and something spoke to her from that book. Anna thought Sarah's story was hysterical which prompted both of them to make up new "stories" identical to the first one only changing "wall" to "shower/polka-dot/my sister/etc."

Posted by Becky at 7:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sarah will now say "Anyeong" to Korean people saying that to her without any prompting from me. One lady at Home Plus this week must have thought Sarah was fluent in Korean because she proceeded to try to have an extended conversation with her in Korean waiting for responses and everything. ("Anyeong" is what adults say to kids and kids say to adults to say hello in Korean--it's a shortened version of the more polite Anyeong-ha-say-yo adults use with each other.)

Posted by Becky at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday Craig took the girls to Lotte Mart and then they stopped at Dunkin' Donuts for lunch in Gohyeon (this one is bigger than the one in Okpo, I guess, and has a big bench that the girls thought was cool). Apparently this made a big impression on Sarah because today when we asked her what she wanted for lunch she said: "doughnut place, bench, pink heart doughnut"

Sarah also says things like, "Piano. Play it." So although her sentence structure is lacking she is definitely getting longer messages out to the world! I'm so proud of this kid!

Posted by Becky at 11:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sarah:
Sarah asks to drink "milk" (it's actually drinkable yogurt but we call it milk) frequently throughout the day. Today though she said, "milk" then changed her mind and requested: "coffee." Craig's bean-roasting has inspired her! She loves to smell the freshly roasted beans and loves when he makes coffee.

Sarah saying more and more two-word phrases. This morning she said, "brown box" the other day it was "blue bus." She is really good at color identification as well!

Anna:
Anna's class had a Pajama Party today where they "turned the classroom into a bedroom!" Anna was so excited for this day she could hardly contain it. She thought it was super fun to go to school in her pajamas. I didn't have my little camera in my purse this morning though so I didn't get any pictures.

Craig/Korea:
Sarah & I were going to the bakery and Import Lady today before we picked up Anna from school. I went to the trunk of the car and her stroller wasn't there. Craig had taken the girls out to dinner last night so I could work and he left the stroller on the sidewalk and drove away. I asked him to please drive by where he left it on his way home for lunch to see if it was around and he said it was in the exact spot he left it last night. I thought that was a pretty good reflection of Okpo that the stroller was still there. I really expected to see an ajumma walking down the street with my stroller loaded down with cabbage on her way to the market! The stroller is now safely back in the trunk of my car.

Posted by Becky at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sarah is eighteen months old! She is learning so much so fast that I can barely keep up! She recognizes several colors (blue, pink, white, brown (her favorite)) and is adding many new words each day. Like I posted eariler, she says pretty much everything now so I've stopped counting. She has said a few two-word phrases ("cheese, please" and "blue bus") and it's fun to see what is interesting to her and what she likes to talk about.

Sarah really likes art-time (playdough, coloring, and stickers) and playing with cars (we have a set-up outside that she and Alfred like to do in the mornings where they send cars down one of my old photo background paper rolls). She also likes everything Anna likes and there are many fights over toys! Sarah also is showing interest in Anna's dollhouse so I'm excited to give Sarah her own at Christmas.

Posted by Becky at 11:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sarah is talking up a storm. I've stopped keeping track of her new words because she repeats everything now. Today I asked her, "how did you get so smart?" and she replied, "daddy." (Thanks a lot, Sarah! My time with you each day apparently counts for nothing!)

Posted by Becky at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

We had some neighbors over this afternoon for some of Craig's fresh-roasted coffee and I made an apple crisp with a few of the apples I bought from the "apple guy." The coffee and crisp were delicious and we had a relaxing afternoon (Sarah actually slept all but the first thirty minutes when she was eating her crisp and ice cream).

I had a photo session later in the afternoon so Craig took the girls to VIPS.

Sarah's new spoken word: VIPS

Posted by Becky at 8:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sarah was super excited that someone stuck some Cars stickers on the inside of the tunnel slide at school. I usually just wait for her at the bottom but she refused to come down so I had to climb up to see what all of the fuss was about!

Sarah is growing a lot these days! She is adding tons of new words, can climb up onto the couch, beds, coffee table, and kitchen table without assistance (the last two are not approved climbing locations). She can also climb the rope ladder at the playground at our apartment. She occasionally acts like she is going to just walk off the edge of some of these high places (and fell off of our bed yesterday but wasn't phased by it at all).

She likes to sit and work on puzzles for a short while, can stack six or seven blocks high, and really likes to read books (photo books and lift-the-flap are still the best). She loves owls so I've gotten her a few owl things and she adores them (books and a stuffed animal).

She saw the moon tonight and was so excited about it she had a hard time falling asleep (because she wanted to keep looking at it).

Sarah is eligible to go to Playschool next month but I cannot imagine sending my baby out into the world yet! We are lucky to have Alfred next door and have fallen into a pattern of playing with him in the morning (driving cars outside) after Sarah & I drop off Anna at school. When I ask her if Alfred is her friend she nods and says, "yes."

She often asks for one (or more) of her stuffed animals after her nap and gives them giant hugs.

New spoken words: eek!, ghost, cloud, moon, star, poop, pee, baby (this is coming out as two syllables now), doll, cheese, please, beep (while signing car), chin, eyes, nose, mouth, cracker, and she says "chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo" when we play with the train set.

New signed word: baby

Posted by Becky at 9:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sarah brought out a pair of Craig's shoes so she could dance in them.

Anna needed to be in the dancing picture, too.

I can't get over Sarah's uncontrollable need to dance! Everywhere and anywhere she is overcome whenever there is a beat. Anna's thing lately is singing along to all of the songs (whether or not she knows the words). They're a pretty sweet pair.

Sarah's new spoken words: Chopstick, Mater (from the movie Cars), moon

Posted by Becky at 8:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This morning, Sarah was hanging out on the bed with me and Craig (she woke up early and I suspect teeth as usual) and Chopstick started scratching the quilt. Sarah yelled, "stop!" and waved her fist down at him like we do when we snap at the cats to stop scratching stuff.

New spoken words: stop, help, duck, rock, boo

Posted by Becky at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anna says: "Don't I look fantastical?" when she tries on certain combinations of dress-up clothes. I'm sure she got this word from me but it's funny to hear her say it anyway. Craig says she is just a "little Becky" with most of the things she comes up with to say.

Sarah is adding new words like crazy! She is also a chronic liar. Ask her just about anything and she'll say, "no." With a little smile that says to me she knows she's not telling the truth! Occasionally (maybe when she is particularly passionate about something), she'll say, "yeah" with an even bigger smile.

Sarah's new spoken words: yum-yum, book, wrapper, eye, duck, apple

Sarah's new animal noises: bear, elephant, pig, and mouse

Posted by Becky at 8:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sarah is still really into music and requests to turn on the stereo often. She dances every chance she gets but isn't trying to sing along just yet (although she says "row, row, row" when she wants me to sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" again so that might count as a singing attempt).

When I sneeze (fairly often as I'm readjusting to life with cats), Sarah will bring me a tissue for my nose. She also likes to get herself a tissue when she sneezes and pretends to blow her nose as well.

She is obsessed with washing her hands. Sometimes she signs "toilet" so that I'll bring her into the bathroom (we keep the door closed). She has started signing "wash hands" because I've started asking if she actually just wants to wash hands and the answer is usually "yes."

Whenever we eat Sarah will make a sign that we have made up to mean "where did (something) go?" and she wants me to ask her "where did your food go?" and she'll point to her mouth, then down her throat, and end at her tummy. This is a tireless game as is peek-a-boo at meal-time and diaper-changing time.

Speaking of diaper changes: we have been really happy with the cloth diapers and I'm so glad I gave them another try!

Sarah is walking more and getting carried less. Partly because she's just getting too heavy for me to carry her long distances any more. She is now saying "walk" (which sounds like "ogg") and pointing down whenever she wants to walk. She is getting better at holding hands when we go which really helps a lot. She's walking more and I'm using the sling less (although I still bring her down the stairs in it when I have Anna) but I'm using the stroller more. It is a strange feeling for me to not have her connected to me when we're walking through town since I'm so used to having her on me. Definitely easier on my back though!

She is so adorable and has the best smile. She smiles so easily, too. She signs please and thank you a lot which is a wonderful thing, too. She misses Anna during the days but I think she also is having fun on her own with me. I am really enjoying the time we're spending together so far.

Her timing on waving hello and goodbye is getting better (so people actually see her doing it!).

New signs: wash hands

New spoken words: walk, shhh (shushing)

Posted by Becky at 9:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I feel like my notes on Sarah's signing/speaking are totally scattered so I went through old posts and notes to myself and created an up-to-date list of signs, spoken words, and animal noises that Sarah is doing (and I am sure I'm forgetting some but I will try to stay on top of the list from here on out):

Spoken:
Anna, dada, mama, clock, light, hotdog, dog, that, owl, pole (it's in a book!), uh-oh, up, no, knock-knock (also in a book), oops, hi, hello, lap

Signed:
more, milk, brush teeth, drink, daddy, all-done, down, elephant, light, eat, bed, hot, bird, duck, fish, bunny, banana, bath, train, thank you, potty, help, car, strong, dog, fan, butterfly, music, doll, swimming, bear, monkey, waves goodbye (although her timing is way off!)

Animal noises:
meow, hoo (owl), neigh, woof

I also wanted to note that Sarah is walking up the stairs every day but I still put her in the sling to come down. She keeps up with Anna's pace. I am holding both hands for balance but her legs are doing the work. We are working on her walking more instead of me carrying her but she only gets so many chances before she gets tossed back in the sling (she doesn't want to hold hands or follow my instruction for very long).

Sarah cannot stop herself from dancing if there is music on. We are listening to music a lot at home now because when we're not, she points to the TV and signs "music." She dances at Home Plus (or where ever we are out) and to any style of music. It is so adorable!

One other big thing here is that we are trying cloth diapers again. I think the reason cloth didn't work with Anna in Doha was I was using the wrong detergent (Tide Free). I have no idea what I'm using here (I chose a random Korean brand) but it seems to be working so far! We are having much better success this time around and I am pleased. A box of diapers costs $11-12 dollars more here and I'm saving myself the hassle (pretty big!) of bringing the box down 74 stairs every two weeks and then also of bringing the dirty diapers back up those 74 stairs.

Posted by Becky at 8:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We met Erin & Logan at the Butterfly Pavillion today. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves. Anna was particularly thrilled when a butterfly landed on her head (if only momentarily). Sarah signed "butterfly" in response to all of the butterflies she saw today. Logan was a sweetheart just like last year!

Posted by Becky at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today the girls and I were still sleeping when it was time to get up for our swimming lessons so we skipped them. I just didn't have the heart to wake the girls for a lesson that wasn't promising. Anna slept until 8 and Sarah slept until 9.

We went to the post office, made a quick trip through Target (where I quickly realized I was overwhelmed and would need to come back another time by myself). I did get a cute pair of shoes for Sarah and Anna picked out a pair of super sparkly shoes for herself. We ate lunch at Johnny Rockets (this was the first meal that Anna and Sarah actually ate, they just haven't been hungry since we got here), and then went back home for Sarah's nap.

This afternoon we tried another pool and it was so much better. We are going to try to get a few (four or five?) private lessons while we're still at Anita & Brian's.

In spite of her jet lag, Sarah added a new sign to her repetoire (thanks, Riggs!): dog

Posted by Becky at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sarah is just so cute right now with her big little personality. When she gets up in the morning she knocks on Anna's door if it is shut (luckily she is not loud so if Anna's still sleeping it won't wake her) and she is babbling up a storm. I really have to try to catch this on video before she moves onto another sound, this is an "L"-filled babble so there is a lot of tongue-action. Her other new thing this week is to stomp. So, if I sing "If You're Happy and You Know It," she can clap her hands and stomp her feet.

Sarah can point to her nose, ears, and teeth. I think she can do others (tongue & eyes?) but this is what I've jotted down in my notes on the counter in the past couple of days.

She is getting better about not putting everything in her mouth and I can actually trust her to go into the next room without me for a very short period. She likes to open and close doors. She has a very strong interest in shoes.

The rainy season has started here so we've been using the umbrellas a lot. If I happen to have an umbrella with me but it's not actually raining, Sarah will get very upset until I open the umbrella and put it over our heads.

Sarah can almost get on and off the ride-on toys in our apartment safely. It's not quite to the point where I'm ready to leave them out all of the time but we're almost there. I think her legs are just a little too short to swing over the seats. She can get herself going forward and back but mostly likes to practice getting on and off.

New signed Words: help, hot, car, toilet (when she's pooping now), and our own made-up sign for "strong"—she thinks this one is hilarious.

Posted by Becky at 8:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sarah has finally started sleeping in until 7:30 or later some days! On days that she sleeps that late I think she's almost ready to try to drop the morning nap but she still needs a little break to get through the morning. Hopefully she will get that figured out before our trip to the US this summer so we can just deal with one nap per day instead of two while we're there.

New Signs: train, thank you, potty (she signs potty in relation to our saying that someone is going to use the bathroom, not her)

Posted by Becky at 11:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just a few things I've been taking notes on the past week or so:

Sarah is obsessed with drinking out of straws. I let her taste my kiwi juice at Davinci the other day and now she wants anything I'm drinking with a straw. Even water is exciting through a straw. So, I found a straw cup for her to drink her water and she is happy (but she still wants anything I'm drinking from a straw—somehow Craig's and Anna's drinks are exempt from this passion).

Sarah started walking and took off running. There seems to have been no real learning curve here. She does tend to plow through things instead of walking around so she still tumbles a bit (but really not as much as you'd think). She also can put her sunglasses on (and take them off and repeat, repeat, repeat) and she helps get dressed and undressed (shirt only). Sarah can also get going forward and backward on a riding toy but hasn't quite mastered getting on and off with grace (she loves getting on any kid-sized chairs, too, and is doing great getting onoff).

New signed words: bear, banana, bath

New spoken words: light

Posted by Becky at 8:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've really been bad about keeping up with Sarah's little things lately and I think it's because there are so many! I know I'm missing some here but will try to keep taking random notes around the house when I think of things.

Sarah knows exactly what she wants but isn't super efficient at communicating that yet. She often wants a piece of fruit from the fruit basket on the counter when we're eating and she'll point angrily in that direction. When you present her with an item from the basket she will nod a very dramatic nod if you got it right. Usually it is a banana she wants but sometimes kiwi or grapes. Other times she is expecting something from the fridge so at this point we just keep showing her stuff until we get it right! I have to get a video of her nodding because it is pretty endearing.

Sarah loves clocks. In fact, this is going down as her first random spoken word (Daddy is technically first). Anytime we see a clock in a book or around town or at the store she get so excited! Fortunately we seem to have quite a few books around here that happen to have clocks in them. She also loves to pretend to talk on the phone and has very animated conversations on any of the play phones throughout the day. And she loves lights. Everywhere we go she points out the lights and signs "light."

She is starting to put things in containers. As much fun as this is, she still prefers to fling books off of the shelf and objects out of drawers and containers more. She's not helping with clean-up time yet anyway.

Sarah can point to her tongue and eyes when we are looking at a book featuring those body parts. She likes to "sniff" flowers (like in Pat the Bunny, a toy one we have around, and when we're outside).

We caught her dancing to Stevie Wonder's Superstition the other day. Too bad I didn't get it on video because she hasn't done it since.

I'm going to start the official word list now even though it actually began a few months ago. I'll list everything to-date here and later will only post new words & signs.

First Signed Word: "more" at seven months
First Spoken Word: "daddy" at ten months

Spoken words: clock, Anna

Signed words: daddy, light, elephant (complete with sound), down, all-done, eat, milk, toothbrush, and bed

Possible signed words (not totally consistent but so close to doing it they have to be the real thing): hot, bird, duck, fish, bunny

Posted by Becky at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I swear I hear Sarah saying stuff all of the time. I'm sure it's just coincidence at this point since she's not consistent about it but I feel like she's on the verge of something. I saw her sign "daddy" and and "all done" and I often hear her make sounds that sound just like "Anna, Daddy, all done." She's is also very into pointing at pictures in books although doesn't follow a command yet (like "point to the cat"). Very exciting times we're heading toward here!

Posted by Becky at 7:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sarah is nine months today! She is changing so fast right now and the differences between her and Anna are really starting to show. The most obvious is that Sarah is much more physical than Anna was and I'm now realizing how easy we had it with her! Sarah pulls up on everything and anything. She likes to stand, kneel (something Anna never did), walk holding hands a little bit, and mostly, she just likes to keep moving constantly. She still hasn't mastered the "traditional" crawl but sometimes goes one to four steps (?) before getting back onto her belly and doing the Army crawl (she can get going pretty fast!).

Sarah is getting her top two front teeth (the left one finally broke through) and I think possibly another one on the bottom right. OUCH! She has not napping very well the past couple of weeks and I've suspected teething so I hopefully they all break through and we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming.

She loves pizza crust, pancakes (made with just egg yolks), beans (her favorite right now), yogurt (she gets mad when the container is empty), chicken, meatballs (again with just the yolks), likes broccoli, cauliflower, carrots. Basically she doesn't like to be spoon-fed and really wants to eat whatever we're eating (which is, thankfully, getting to the point where it is possible more often than not).

Sarah is babbling a lot. She says "a na na na na" a lot and I do wonder if she's saying "Anna" but am not sure. She also says "mamama mamamama" a lot as well. She is signing "brush teeth" now and possibly "drink." She hasn't kept up with the other signs we've seen her do so I'll be interested to see when she keeps them in her regular repertoire.

She pays attention when we're reading books (she's done this for a few months now) and still likes lift-the-flap, touch-and-feel, and picture books the best. She does like Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton though and it makes her laugh every time I read it with her.

Sarah has never been terribly excited about riding in the car (the first night we tried to go out as a family in Doha when she was a couple of weeks old she cried all the way home from The Villagio) but now that I've given her her Snack Trap while we drive she is content to dig O's out (and sometimes rip the lid off of the trap and dump them everywhere—Anna never took the lid off of her Snack Trap until she was 2 so this one little example I see of Anna being a rule-follower and Sarah being a rule-breaker). She does, however like to ride the little ride-on cars with Anna. It's too bad this really hurts my back & neck to do it for extended periods but the girls like to zip around the apartment stopping at each of the Stawberry Shortcake character's houses (Sarah's room is Apple Dumplin's Apple Orchard and Anna's room is Orange Blossom's Orange Blossom Acres, for example).

Posted by Becky at 8:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sarah is babbling a lot more lately. We all claim to have heard her say various things although if she did they were flukes. Anna & I heard her say "Anna" and "Mama" and Craig & I heard her say "dada." She's working on some g and d sounds right now and she has just the sweetest voice ever.

Posted by Becky at 8:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another potential sign to add to Sarah's list is "milk."

Posted by Becky at 8:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sarah is signing "more!" I don't think she totally knows what it means though as she signs it constantly (although maybe she is always wanting more of whatever we're doing!). Hopefully she'll get it soon and pick up on some other signs as well. It's super cute and I'll get a video.

Posted by Becky at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Anna is starting to say words like "stairs" and "sky" properly now. Before she would have said "tairs" and "ky." But now she is saying them correctly most of the time. The funny thing is if you say it incorrectly she will correct you. (Craig discovered this, I always try to say things the correct way rather than mimicking her language. Sometimes though you get so used to hearing her say it one way you start saying it incorrectly yourself, like when she used to say "kig" for "pig," I found myself saying "kig" half of the time!)

Posted by Becky at 8:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

After about three months of refusing a bath and taking only showers, I finally convinced Anna to sit in the bathtub and take a bath this week. I finally spotted a bottle of unscented Mr. Bubbles at Megamart and that was the trick. The whole time she was in the tub she would look up at me and smile, "you're taking a bath!" as if she had never taken one before in her life. I still don't know what the problem was with taking a bath before but now she's getting into it a little and is requesting a bath instead of a shower (the shower was actually quicker, but I think the bath is more relaxing for her).

Anna has peed on the potty three times and pooped twice now. We're still not "officially" training because our successes have been more about my timing than her desire to not go in her diaper. She also refuses to believe that she can pull her pants & diaper up and down (she did do it once before shortly after we arrived in Doha). This is probably something that Nana and Grandma will have to convince her to do because she obviously doesn't believe me!

She is memorizing more and more of her books but we luckily still have quite a stash of books she hasn't read yet. Her current favorites are Kitten's First Full Moon, Mickey Mouse Heads for the Sky, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Cat in the Hat, The Best First Book Ever, What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?, and The Tiger Who Came to Tea along with a bunch of other random titles.

One note on Anna's speech is that her pronunciation is off on words that start with s and are followed by a consonant. She basically just drops the s on those words: tairs (stairs), poothie (smoothie), top (stop), etc. If the s is followed by a vowel though she says the word clearly. One of my favorite words to hear her say is "complicated" just because she says it so well (it's in Mickey Mouse Heads for the Sky.

Anna still seems really into music and is singing new songs all the time (this morning it was Yankee Doodle, last week I heard her singing one of the songs from music class). We are going to continue the music classes for the next session to have that bit of stability when Baby Sister arrives. I asked her if she wanted to go to the beach or to church this morning and she chose church so we could sing church songs (she does hold out hope that we'll sing Mambo Italiano at church though!).

Posted by Becky at 11:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you ask Anna where she's going the most common responses are:

"Sant Citgo" (San Francisco). (She likes to watch a video we made of her walking in San Francisco.)

or
"Landmark Mall" (to ride the carousel)

Posted by Becky at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm adding a new category here: "isms." I want to remember all of the funny little things Anna says (and that Baby Girl will say, too!).

"Tore it into bite-size pieces!" (a tissue, mail, anything when made into smaller pieces)

"Cold frozen strawberries." (an ingredient in smoothies)

Posted by Becky at 2:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anna loves smoothies and asks for them multiple times per day. We all shared one at the mall a few weeks ago and then Craig started making them at home once I found a good stock of frozen fruit to use. This particular smoothie, or "poozie" as Anna would say, is a little thick as it was the first one I have made (a little too much mango juice, not enough milk, I guess).

The other mispronunciation that I find endearing is "pocus." When we're walking up or down the stairs we often have to remind her to focus or concentrate.

Posted by Becky at 8:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Anna is spending more and more time self-entertaining lately. Photo by Craig.

All I could think of was Steve Martin in The Jerk when Anna started tapping/stomping her feet to music tonight.

It has only been a couple of weeks since the 21 month post, but I think there's enough going on that I'll do this one now (and another later, if necessary).

Anna & music is really moving along. She's more into singing & dancing than the musical instruments we bought her for Christmas, but hopefully we can incorporate them more with her favorite songs: Bed, Bed, Bed by They Might Be Giants (she also gets super excited about In the Middle), any of the Dean Martin songs we play for her (mostly That's Amore, Everybody Loves Somebody, and Mambo Italiano), Elvis' Burning Love, What's New Pussycat? by Tom Jones, and Hopalong Peter by Jerry Garcia. When we're at home (as opposed to the driving in the car), she'll go stand right next to the speaker during her favorite parts of the songs. I don't know if she thinks she'll be able to see the music or what, but she's really consistent about it. And, of course, in typical toddler fashion, she asks to play each song over and over and over and over again.

I got her Maurice Sendak's Nutshell Library and she loves these little books. Alligators All Around is her favorite right now and she can say clear as day on the Q page: "Quite Quarrelsome." I really ought to try to get that on video because it sounds ridiculous coming out of a 22 month old's mouth! Of course she has no idea what she's saying but one day instead of napping she was repeating this for about 30-45 minutes before she moved on to other things that were bouncing around in her head.

Anna knows letters & numbers but doesn't sing the alphabet song or really do a lot of counting. I'd say she's known these for a few months now so it's not really new, but I don't think I've really mentioned it before. She just loves noticing letters & numbers on things. We've been playing with her shape sorter (Melissa & Doug 12 shapes) and she knows shapes really well: paralellogram, trapezoid, oval, triangle, circle, square, rectangle, star, octogon, but gets pentagon & hexagon mixed up (this is where counting would come in handy!). She had a shape puzzle before she could do the sorter and she learned quite a few from that earlier, but she's finally gotten good at the sorter and we've spent a lot of time this week working on it.

About two weeks ago, Anna really started freaking out with Craig at bathtime. Craig has always been the one to give her a bath since the beginning. We decided that maybe I should give her a bath to try to change things up a bit since we couldn't figure out what the problem was. (We have to bathe her every night or else she her skin gets rashy—eczema.) One night I asked her if she'd rather take a shower and she said "yes" so we've been doing that since. Somehow she now listens to me and lifts her head back so her face doesn't get wet when I was her hair and there are no more freak-outs. Her bathtub has a hose for the shower so we sing the Hokey-Pokey while she showers so it's super fun.

Anna loves to look at herself in the mirror or her reflection in the windows when she is running by.

She is walking up and down stairs (holding the railing and usually my hand) and she can do the two steps to the carport by herself without holding on to anything.

Finally (I am sure that is what you are saying!), Anna really responds well when I say "three more times and then we're done" or "when I count to five we're going to...." It is pretty hilarious as usually when I get to five, she drops everything she's doing in a panic and hurries off to the thing I've said we're going to do.

Posted by Becky at 9:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We hosted playgroup at our house today—presumably the last time we do so. Anna did a really good job. She still sat on my lap a lot, but she was definitely better about it this time than last. She had no problems (as far as I could tell) with the other kids playing with her toys.

Amelia & Bryan were playing with her Little People Zoo at one point, and she announced "someone playing with zoo!" Not in an annoyed or possessive way, but she wanted to let me know. I thought it was funny because she knows who Amelia & Bryan are but she chose to say "someone."

Poor Caroline couldn't make it because she was sick, but after everyone left, Anna said, "Caroline likes stroller" because when we hosted in August, Caroline was really into the stroller (so much so that we had to put it away because she got mad when other kids played with it!). I just find it amusing the things that kids hold onto in their memories and the (seemingly) random stuff that they say throughout the day.

Anyway, I really hope we can find a group as good as this one when we move to Qatar. Anna talks about Caroline & Bryan a lot so I know it's important to get out there and make some new friends when we arrive (both for her and for me!).

Posted by Becky at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anna is showing a lot of interest in learning letters. I have had her name written in alphabet letters on the fridge for a while so she can name a lot of those. Last week I had a hard time reading through one of her Mother Goose books because she stopped to point out every "w" and "m" in the book. She also likes the number 9. We're not doing any "formal" training with her, but I try to talk about the letters as she asks about them or points them out. Last week she spotted a "k" in "Stroller Parking" at the Children's Museum.

I put out some Halloween decorations last week and a couple of the things I have say "boo" on them. So we've been jumping out at each other (and daddy has gotten in on the action, too) and saying "boo" and then the other person says "you scared me!" It's pretty cute because she really thinks she's being sneaky when she does this.

Craig taught her how to hug, but we've been calling it a "squeeze." It feels so good to have her little arms squeeze around your neck!

Also, she has finally climbed up onto the couch on her own several times the past few days. Sometimes she still says "need some help" but she can do it pretty well on her own ("all by myself").

All of a sudden she can say "pig" correctly. She had been saying "kig." She is working on using the word "and" as well. It's so cool to hear her speech and language develop.

Posted by Becky at 8:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The other day in the grocery store parking lot, Anna commented, "loud pickup truck drove by" when, well, a loud pickup truck drove by!

Posted by Becky at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was sneezing as Anna & I came down the stairs this morning and she said (her version of) "bless you."

We went to the Children's Museum with Bryan & Sara today and Anna had a lot of fun again. I was talking to her at dinner about what we did there today and she'd say "Children's Museum again" so I'd repeat it all back again. I'm glad we bought the membership since she apparently likes it so much!

Anna has a great eye for spotting fire trucks, cement trucks, school buses, big trucks, dump trucks, and (insert any color) cars while we're driving on the road. She has also started telling me "red light" and "green light." Sometimes, for true backseat-driver-effect, she throws in "red light-stop" and "green light-go."

Posted by Becky at 8:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tuesday afternoon when we went out to get the mail, Anna noticed her shadow on the ground. So we observed hers, mine, the mail's, and her cup's shadows which she seemed to find pretty interesting.

Yesterday afternoon when we went out to get the mail, a red truck drove by and Anna said, "red truck" (pause) "drive by." She is stringing words together really well. She wanted to read The Foot Book last night and it was on top of the stack of books by the chair in her room so she said, "Foot book up high." Amazing!

I'm also always impressed that she recognizes each of her books by the spine and has a name for them all (a lot of times at least one word from the title—obviously because I tell her the title of the book!—but sometimes by what picture is on the front).

Posted by Becky at 6:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I asked Anna to bring me her white shoes this afternoon so she walked over to her shoes, picked one up, handed it to me and said, "one." Then she turned around and got the other shoe and said, "two."

Posted by Becky at 7:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anna sat down and looked at her box-full of finger puppets and shouted "Oh my!" so we got her to say it again for the camera. She's been saying this for about a week now. I must say it more than I realize (in the context of "oh my, what a mess" or "oh my, those glasses are pretty" or whatever). Today she is saying "fall down" a lot whenever something drops or she falls down. Two-word phrases are piling up around here.

Posted by Becky at 7:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Becky at 8:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A few more things I forgot to add in my "Little Things" post (it became quite long when I didn't do it in July!). Anna has been saying "hoju" ("hold you") when she wants to be picked up and carried. I remember stories of Jacob saying the same thing so I wasn't too surprised when she started doing it, too.

She definitely thinks she is "you" though as she will point to herself when I say to Gertie the cat, "let us pet you." Gertie has actually been quite acommodating lately and Anna has gotten to pet her several times the past few days. Anna's pet is a very gentle one-finger pet and she giggles whenever Gertie indulges her so.

Anna is working on nodding her head yes, but still says "No" and shakes her head when we sing "do you KNOW the muffin man." I'm signing "know" but I don't think it's getting through that there is a difference.

By the way, instead of napping today, Anna is upstairs saying "betdo", "OK", "sit up!", and other things I can't quite make out over the monitor. Hopefully she'll get tired and actually take a nap before too long!

New Signed Word: pig

Posted by Becky at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Anna was sick earlier this week (still has a bit of a cough) and then I got it this weekend. So my plans for a long run this morning were scrapped. I actually spent most of the weekend in bed reading books and napping while Craig and Anna played together.

I had promised an updated list of animal noises before I left for Paris (and she's done them for a while, but they're not on the list: mouse, coyote/wolf, owl, chicken, rooster, fish, bird, duck, chick, and the best one: porcupine ('ow!")

Anna definitely knows a lot of her colors already but she doesn't actually know what you're saying when you say "what color is that?" She doesn't know what the word "color" is so if you get one color going she'll say the rest, or she'll just do it on her own without prompting.

She is saying a lot of two-word and the occasional three-word sentance ("tree blow breeze" for "trees blowing in the breeze"). The other night she asked for a snack before bed and I said she could have a banana. Did she want it sliced or whole and she said "knife cut." It is so nice to be able to communicate!

When we were playing with the play-doh the other day I made a cinnamon roll and she was saying something that sounded like "yellow" or "lid" and I could tell she was getting frustrated with me when i didn't understand, but when I figured out she wanted me to make a "little" cinnamon roll she got really excited and pleased with herself that she had effectively asked for what she wanted.

Anna was really good about saying or signing "please" for a while, but now that she figured out how to say "OK" (instead of just "k") she approves a lot of her own requests instantly without saying please. If we are slow to fulfill the request though she will throw in a "please."

Anna will finish the rhyme "to market, to market, to buy a plum bun; home again, home again, marketing's... " (and Anna wil say, very pleased) "DONE."

Craig taught her the phrase "I bet you do" this weekend. Anna just says "bet-do" but it is super cute. I guess this was when they went to the park and he asked if she wanted to swing/slide and he'd say "I bet you do." I think my being sick this weekend was actually a good thing because the two of them really got to spend a lot of alone-time together.

Posted by Becky at 8:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anna thought her new doll-size bottles should go on the back of her chair, where we keep her cups.

She really wanted to practice "cutting" her wooden food today

Anna started pointing to herself and saying something along the lines of "aaaa" today and she has really started saying "mama," too. She'd ask me to do something (drop a ball or dump out the cup of water) and then after I did it a few times she'd point to herself and ask to have her do it. It is just about the cutest thing ever.

She has all of her usual signs of teething right now but I can't figure out which teeth (after braving her mouth to put teething gel on her gums); maybe it's still her molars (although I am pretty sure I see all four through already)? She has funky dirty diapers and a stuffy/runny nose. She woke up early this morning and didn't take an as-long-as-usual nap this afternoon. She remains in a good mood while she's awake though (thank goodness!) but she is a bit more sensitive than usual.

Posted by Becky at 7:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Feeding her doll a cracker.

I put the doll in her lap this way because she was acting annoyed sitting across from the doll and reading the book. (Everything else was her own doing though—no prompting!

Anna was really into her doll this afternoon when she woke up from her nap. She moved on to balls, blankets, and puzzles though after we went to the store.

New Signed Words: mommy (finally!), toilet (introduced because she was signing "please" when I went to the bathroom), and elephant

Posted by Becky at 8:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anna has surprised me lately that she already has a bit of an imagination. She's been playing with her cooking tools for a while, pushing her doll around in the stroller, making her stuffed animals dance, feeding them or me water or milk, and carrying the purse (above) around a bit. I gave her my old wallet for all of her "credit cards" (the ones that come free in the mail) and she really likes that. She also asks to have the dish towel put over her head like a little scarf/hat a lot.

However, what actually surprised me yesterday was when we were eating lunch. We were eating a peanut butter & jelly sandwich and I had cut hers up into bite-sized pieces. She started saying "car" and then moved the sandwich bites around and said "beep-beep!". I had never pretended her food was a car so I was pretty impressed. I was equally impressed, but less encouraging, when she started to pretend her fork was a pair of glasses (getting those tines awfully close to her eyes) at dinner.

She loves to watch that video I posted of her on the carousel and I did take a video while blueberry-picking yesterday that I need to edit down before I post. She watched that video and then would half-bend-over and pretend-pick a blueberry and put it in her mouth and say "mmmm."

I'm interested to see what she does today!

New Animal Noises: dog, snake, bear

New Signed Words: fan, cracker, monkey, wait (wait is actually old but isn't on the list)

Posted by Becky at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Anna has gotten into making animal noises lately and it is pretty cute. I'll try to capture some video of her making a few later on. (Sorry I've been procrastinating posting video, I'll make a post with the links when I get it done so you don't have to go searching for them.)

Animal noises: monkey, cat, sheep, horse, lion, cow, pig (this is not an actual noise, but she moves her mouth in the same way I do when I make the snorting noise—super cute!)

New Signed Words: cat, change (as in "change your diaper")

Old Signed Words that I didn't find on my lists: phone, car, drink, sing/music, play, daddy

We're starting another signing class next week so I'll probably be adding to her signs list this summer!

Posted by Becky at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Grandma Adele knit this robot for Anna after I found a booklet of "how to knit unusual toys" online and gave it to her for Christmas!

I don't feel like I've updated on the little things that Anna is doing lately and I don't want to forget them so I'm going to try to remember now.

Anna is pretending to give a bear or a doll some water. She likes to push her doll around in the stroller and she wants her to be sitting just so. Sometimes we talk about how the doll is napping during Anna's errands and Anna will make the sign for nap and hug and kiss her doll. She'll also push around her robot, a puzzle piece, a cup, or other random objects, but she usually likes to push the doll.

Often Anna will walk around, doing laps around the house and lately she will stop and dance a little. She even has her doll, robot, finger puppets, etc stop and dance, too. It is super cute. Of course I intend to make video and of course I intend to post that video. It's on my list...

She has also gotten into using her shape sorter more recently and "solving" puzzles like her fridge farm magnets and the big knob puzzles she has. She says a ton of words and has added a few new signs to her vocabulary. We're trying a signing class later this month to see if we want to continue.

I'm trying to be more consistent about putting a spoon and fork down for every meal to let her practice that since Sam was so inspiring when he was here. He was inspiring for her to start sucking her thumb—just a little, I've only seen it a couple of times.

In preparation for Jacob & Sam coming down Rachel was singing The Stars at Night to them and I started it up with Anna again. Now when we're reading naptime/bedtime books this can slow us down quite a bit when just about every page has stars on it and we have to stop and sing "the stars at night are big and bright CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, deep in the heart of Texas!" She also claps when she sees the star on her cup.

New Signed Words: airplane, hat

Posted by Becky at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Anna skinned her knee on Saturday (while Craig was watching her, mind you!) and today she started grabbing at the scab so I put a Hello, Kitty! bandaid on her knee which worked pretty well since she was transfixed with the cat on her knee. She did try to take the bandaid off a few times, but soon she forgot about it.

New Spoken Words: robot, bagel, drain, drawer, bath, bowl

**Really, I think I can't remember the words anymore; I think I'm just going to have to leave it at "she says a lot of words"

Posted by Becky at 7:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Photos by Craig

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms, moms-to-be, and moms-at-heart out there!

Grandma & Grandpa came in for a visit this weekend. They babysat for us last night while Craig & I went out to a potluck with Lesley's Babysitting Co-Op group. There isn't room in teh co-op for us right now, but another couple that was there last night is interested in starting a new one with us (and some others that have expressed interest). I even scored the names of two babysitters while I was there so maybe Craig & I can get out more often more regularly!

I missed some exciting stuff yesterday when I went upstairs to get ready for the potluck: Craig, Grandma, & Grandpa asked Anna to point out different parts of her body and she was able to point out her: arms, hair, eyes, ears, nose, toes, elbows, and hands. I'll have to ask her again sometime (hey, maybe even for the camera--although she usually shuts off fo the camera!).

New Spoken Words: mirror, dark, squirrel, bag, Target^®, paper, CD Player, couch, bed, turtle, dolphin

New Signed Words: big

New Un-prompted Phrases: "big duck"

Posted by Becky at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anna has started saying "me" when she wants to read a book together; this is because I often say "do you want to read a book with me?"

Posted by Becky at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anna loves to read and her favorite books change regularly; today she was particularly fond of Pie Rats Ahoy! and her dumptruck book.

Sharon's "taquito" comment makes me think that my lovely readers may think that Anna is actually speaking clearly and that people other than those immediately in the room and paying attention would know what she's talking about. For the most part, she says a single syllable for each "word" I've listed although she is starting to say double syllables (like "baby" and "caca" (for cracker) or "papa" (for pepper)). Just wanted to clear up any potential mis-understandings there. The books say if they say the word consistently the same way, it counts as a word, so I've been counting it since she is communicating with me when she uses the words. I don't know when it is that their speech becomes clearer to non-caregivers; another year? when she gets a full set of teeth?

Anna did pretty well at play group; she was a bit whiney for my taste, but I think that's a phase she's going through right now (especially when she falls while walking around). The group was small today (I think due to email communcation errors) which I'm sure was better for Anna anyway. I'm really pleased that we found the group and am looking forward to next week!

Oh, and for the record, Taquito sounds like "tah."

New Spoken Words: crib, tissue, shoes, dots

Posted by Becky at 7:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Anna loves to practice getting in and out of her outdoor chair.

She also loves to make silly faces; especially when I make them back!

Anna was so cute in her new sleeveless top, I had to do a mini-photo session in the backyard while Craig made dinner. I was originally trying to get a shot of the barrette I put in her hair, but she wouldn't let me get a good shot of the right side of her head. (I feel like I'm very often sweeping her long "bangs" off of her face but I'm not sure I'm ready to cut it or get a "style" yet, I'm waiting to see what it does if we just grow it out long.) She also got some new sandals today (not pictured, either!) so she doesn't have to wear socks in 80-90 degree weather!

I also keep forgetting to note that the volume on Anna's speaking voice has toned down to normal levels since our trip to Paris. I think this happened during our trip (thank goodness, I was nervous about being LOUD Americans on our trip!).

New Spoken Words: "choo" (as in "ah-choo" for a sneeze, something we do a lot of in our house!), avocado, taquito, more, mail

Craig and I heard her say "head door" when she bumped her head on the door tonight--does that count as her first sentence?

Posted by Becky at 7:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Craig is encouraging me to try to keep the running list of words, but I feel like I can't keep up (so I know my list is already incomplete...). Anna wants to know what everything is and then either says the word or moves on. One word that she doesn't say is "swing" even though she loves the swing so I would think that that would be highly motvitating. She says "slide" so it's not the "s" sound. I've been doing the sign for "swing" for her instead because that is her only grunting & pointing word (she is loving the swing again at the park).

New Spoken Words: towel, (wash)cloth, clothes, grass, girl, boy, baby (actual two-syllable word that really sounds like "baby"!), boat, arm, nose, hair, mama (she says it wih meaning), dada (also definitely knows that that is Craig), dry, gel (as in teething gel!), tall, juice (says "dada juice" because Craig is always drinking juice), bug, heavy

New Signed Words: thank you, tall

Posted by Becky at 2:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

Photo by Craig

I was doing a bit of weeding in the front yard tonight and Anna was practicing walking through the grass with Craig. She saw the Crape Myrtle and decided she would have more fun to hanging on it. She must have walked around and held on to this tree for ten minutes or so. Pretty convenient for us--she even bent down and picked a couple of dollar weeds for me!

New Spoken Words: ear, tent, train, slide

Posted by Becky at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I had to include this photo because it so cute to me when she crosses her legs!

Anna really enjoyed playing with the pot & pan I bought for her at Target last night. It was just about the only toy we played with today! We used the nice wooden fruits & vegetables Anita bought her in Paris to cook our "meal."

New Spoken Words: doll, home, cold, girl

New Signed Words: milk, cooking

Posted by Becky at 7:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anna started saying "ca-ca" for "cracker" on our trip; this is her first attempt to make two-syllable words come out of her mouth. She will also, when prompted, sign "more, please" which is a very nice phrase to see/hear!

She wants to know what everything is and points at it all so I'll probably have to stop tracking her vocabulary soon!

New Spoken Words: eye, egg, trash, horse, bath, o (as in o-shaped cereal), carpet, pillow, cow, frog

Posted by Becky at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Finally Anna is listening to me at the top of the stairs when I ask her to turn around to come down. It is so cute! Half of the time she turns way too early and turns around again or she turns too far and starts going sideways. I still don't trust her going down by herself, but at least she is practicing now where she wasn't really interested in going down before. She doesn't listen very well at the top of the slide, however and I still need to physically turn her around so she goes down feet-first.

She has taken a few more steps on her own (she doesn't feel brave enough most of the time, though). She took a few steps from our bathroom to the stairs yesterday and then this morning she took a few (conscious effort!) steps toward a book she wanted to read.

New Spoken Words: plane*, plate, baaa (as in a sheep says "baaa")

*We have had a lot of (annoying!) flight traffic over our house since about the week before we left for San Francisco which is why there seems to be an interest in planes.

Posted by Becky at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was surprised that Anna didn't even attempt to take off her sunglasses today (we haven't put them on her since summer). I guess her eyes were relieved!

The past few days at the park all Anna wants to do is swing while holding on to two pinecones. If I can convince her to get down and walk it is to go on a pinecone hunt. It makes it easier for me, I suppose, but there is no adventure in standing and pushing her on the swing for 10 minutes at a time.

New spoken* word: toes, pinecone

*yes, spoken, not yelled today!

Posted by Becky at 7:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK, really, I don't understand why she is so loud. Anyone who knows us knows that we are quiet people. I hope this passes soon because she really seems to be getting louder each day. I almost felt like I needed to leave Target this afternoon it was so out of hand; she almost lept out of the cart when she saw a bin of balls (BA! BA! BA! BA! BA! BA!).

New YELLED! Words: Heart, hot, bob (as in "the red, red, robin comes bob, bob, bobbin' along")

Posted by Becky at 7:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Please someone tell me that my child will one day be able to use an "indoor" voice sometime soon in her young life. Anna yells everything she says and I think she's getting louder each day. It is not an angry-yell, it's just an announcement-yell, but it can get loud.

The other thing that is currently driving me nuts is that she still swipes (or drops, but never throws) a good amount of food onto the floor. And she'll do it while she's still eating (although usually not at full-pace). At what age do I start enforcing a "you're done eating when you start swiping/dropping food on the floor" rule? She's gotten a lot better about keeping her cup on the table, but she does still have her moments.

New Spoken (YELLED!) Words: jeans, pop (as in "pop goes the weasel")

New Signed Words: happy, please, duck*

*duck & keys are the only words that she speaks and signs.

[Since I wrote this, Anna has stopped with the excessive swiping/dropping of her food (she's still doing it, but sweeping up after mealtimes is significantly less intense). -Becky 4/6/06]

Posted by Becky at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anna's pride in a successful stack.

Anna's latest thing is stacking. She is really into the blocks we got her for her birthday but she also likes to stack non-block items on them and sometimes she stacks her food at the table. Most importantly, she yells "kah!" (stack) when she succesfully stacks something.

New Spoken Words: Yogurt, stack, bye, map

New Signs: all-done, help

Posted by Becky at 1:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anna will occasionally walk along the walls now but she prefers to hold my hand. Sometimes I can convince her to hold something in one hand and just hold one of my hands--I think she is getting better at that now that we've done it a few times. When she is tired though she will drop the object and just shout "kuh!" (I'm trying to teach her "please" but it's not taking!)

On garbage day we go to the door to watch the garbage truck and the recycling truck. I think she thinks every time we go to the front door something exciting will be going on outside. Usually it's pretty quiet though.

One of her other favorite activities while cruising is to drop something and pick it up, drop it and pick it up, repeat, repeat, reapeat. Seems like a lot of work to me, but she finds it quite entertaining.

New Spoken Words: apple, down, duck, door, cake, cat, bell, block, bar
New Signs: clean up

Posted by Becky at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)