Leah's doing new things all the time, it's sometimes hard to keep up with her. Here's what she's been up to in the past few weeks....
Playing pretend. Trying to put her pyjamas on her stuffed pug and put him to bed. This is usually when I'm trying to put her PJ's on her after her bath, and she won't let me have them because she's so busy trying to dress her doggie. She gives him hugs and kisses and when she lays him down on the bed, she goes "shhhhh" and puts her finger to her mouth. Well, she doesn't quite make the right sound (sounds more like "ffff") and actually puts her finger on her teeth, but she's getting close. And she's still enjoying her tea parties, and mostly conducts these while sitting on the window sill above her toy box. She loves to offer us tea and cakes. And of course, she's always making pretend phone calls and playing with her Little People toys.
Washing herself in the tub. Just during the past few days at the beginning of her baths, she has started standing in the tub, holding her hands under the faucet and then rubbing them together trying to wash herself. When I say "wash your arms", "wash your tummy", "wash your shoulders", "wash your face", etc. she does it. She just learned "shoulders" the other day and when I say "where are your shoulders?", she shrugs them and tries to touch them. In Kindermusik class, there's a song about taking a bath called "wishy washy wee" that she loves. I sing it to her a lot and do the hand movements, so I think this is where she's getting this from.
Acting out her books. She has started acting while I read to her. The other day when our social worker was here for her visit, she was reading "Bear Snores On" to her, and Leah acted each scene out...dancing, sleeping, eating, etc. Our social worker was really impressed. Another book that Leah loves is "A Mother for Choco". She acts out when Choco is sad by rubbing her eyes and looking down, and when he is happy by raising up her arms and shouting "aay!". It's lots of fun to read to her now that she is so interactive.
Cross-referencing. In her counting book called the "123 Train", Leah loves when we get to the page where there are 8 turtles. She just beams and smiles so big. The other day, when we got to that page, she got up and got another book, "A Mother for Choco", and flipped to the page with a turtle on it. Then she did the same for the bunny rabbits. She's been doing this with other books, too. When showing her picture books of objects, she often goes and retrieves that object. For instance, we showed her a picture of keys (real keys), and she got right up and got her toy car keys and brought them over. She saw a picture of a xylophone once and got up and started banging on her alligator xylophone. She can identify so many words correctly nowadays. Her vocabulary is really expanding.
Toilet paper. Just tonight, Leah surprised us when she got hold of a few rolls of toilet paper. They were just sitting on the living room floor for a moment. Before I could get to them, she had started playing with a roll. She didn't unravel the roll or anything, but tore up a few pieces and was pretending to wipe herself! Speaking of potty learning, starting about a month ago, she has become very aware when she is going pee or poopy in her diaper. She points to her diaper and goes "das? das?" when she is going. I mentioned already how she got out of the tub to go use her potty. She's done that several times during her baths. Before that, if she was starting to go pee in the bath, she would point to herself and ask "das?".
Getting up on kitchen chairs. Once again, we've had to rearrange the furniture because Leah has managed to get up on the kitchen chairs by herself. I've even tried using a few different types of chairs from around the house, but she can get on all of them. She's so proud of herself. One day I found her sitting on the chair looking at my laptop on the kitchen table. Another time, I found her standing on one. It's just a matter of time before she's starts climbing onto the table and kitchen counters. So, while we're telling her not to do that, we've also just started taking the chairs out of the kitchen when we're not using them.
Talking. She's saying more and more words. When she's in the right mood, she will pretty much attempt just about any word or person's name I give her. I just say "Can you say.....?" and she tries it and then nods her head and smiles proudly. She'll usually get the right sound or the number of syllables. And some words she says perfectly. Some of her favorite words right now are "Oooooo, Wow!", which she exclaims very dramatically all the time when she sees something she likes. Plus, she says "Hi" and "Bye Bye" and waves to us all day long. She also says "Bye Bye" and waves when she closes something or puts something away. Plus, she uses her sign language for "hungry" and "more".
Friday, October 30, 2009
Our little turkey
This week at Little Gym, the kids got to wear their Halloween costumes and they all looked so cute. Leah got a lot of laughs in her turkey costume and it was so fun seeing her run around in it. We have a make-up class on Friday, so we'll either put her back in her turkey costume or try her ladybug outfit for that one. We're really looking forward to taking her trick-or-treating and hope the weather cooperates!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
New Dance Moves
One morning, we put in a DVD about Shanghai (since we're exploring a possible transfer there), and Leah loved the music and started dancing right away. Her dance moves keep evolving and she just started doing this new stuff swinging her butt back and forth about a week ago. She always likes to ask "das?" or "dis?" nowadays when she's doing something, like "what's this called again?" Even while John tosses her up into the air, she's busy asking "das? das?"
Also, now that her hair is getting longer, she always wakes up with some crazy bed-head!
Also, now that her hair is getting longer, she always wakes up with some crazy bed-head!
Gobble, Gobble
Just a preview of how cute Leah looks in her Turkey costume. She didn't like it at first, but now she loves running around and playing in it for hours. It fits her perfectly and looks so cute on her!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Learning is fun
In the past week, Leah has suddenly started repeating words back to us. It started with the word "down". She started saying "dow" when I said it, and now says it all the time when we set her down. We play a game of "up/down" now all the time, where she stands up and we say "up" and then she sits down or falls back and says "dow".
The same day she started doing that, she started repeating a whole bunch of words or sounds back to me. When I say "Can you say.....?", she says it back to me! It's so exciting hearing her "talking". She says "blue", "mommy" (yeah!!), "mamaw", "wow", "ow", "boom", "baby", "boo boo", "bob", "roar", "moo moo", "ayayaya", "love", etc...
This is from the day she had her dentist visit.
It seems her receptive language skills are just taking off. She understands so much of what we say to her. She follows simple commands, like "go look in the mirror", "time to put your toys away", etc. She knows things like: upstairs, downstairs, outside, car, on, off, sleepy, tired, hungry, more, pants, shirt, socks, shoes, zipper, button, cloud, tree, sun, moon, flowers, plants, cheese, crackers, juice, milk, water, shower, bath, bed, book, stickers, all the names of her toys, names of all the animals, home, mirror, names of fruits, etc, etc. This is just what I can come up with, but she probably knows way more than we even realize.
She has started feeding us, which is really cute. She imitates everything, like licking her fingers when she turns pages in a book or magazine, blowing on her food and fanning it when it's hot, pretending to put lotion on her face or mine, and trying to put on her pants and socks and shoes.
We received as a gift a neat picture bingo game, where there's a board of nine pictures and then nine tiles that match the pictures. We have three boards with all different pictures. For about a month already, Leah has been doing this completely on her own. She doesn't even need us there and does it by herself. It's the coolest thing to watch and I can tell it's become really easy for her already. It's so much fun watching her do new things every day. This is such an amazing stage.
The same day she started doing that, she started repeating a whole bunch of words or sounds back to me. When I say "Can you say.....?", she says it back to me! It's so exciting hearing her "talking". She says "blue", "mommy" (yeah!!), "mamaw", "wow", "ow", "boom", "baby", "boo boo", "bob", "roar", "moo moo", "ayayaya", "love", etc...
This is from the day she had her dentist visit.
It seems her receptive language skills are just taking off. She understands so much of what we say to her. She follows simple commands, like "go look in the mirror", "time to put your toys away", etc. She knows things like: upstairs, downstairs, outside, car, on, off, sleepy, tired, hungry, more, pants, shirt, socks, shoes, zipper, button, cloud, tree, sun, moon, flowers, plants, cheese, crackers, juice, milk, water, shower, bath, bed, book, stickers, all the names of her toys, names of all the animals, home, mirror, names of fruits, etc, etc. This is just what I can come up with, but she probably knows way more than we even realize.
She has started feeding us, which is really cute. She imitates everything, like licking her fingers when she turns pages in a book or magazine, blowing on her food and fanning it when it's hot, pretending to put lotion on her face or mine, and trying to put on her pants and socks and shoes.
We received as a gift a neat picture bingo game, where there's a board of nine pictures and then nine tiles that match the pictures. We have three boards with all different pictures. For about a month already, Leah has been doing this completely on her own. She doesn't even need us there and does it by herself. It's the coolest thing to watch and I can tell it's become really easy for her already. It's so much fun watching her do new things every day. This is such an amazing stage.
Weekend fun
I didn't get around to mentioning that last weekend, we discovered a great place nearby for fall festivities, Patterson Fruit Farm. This is our third visit to a farm this season, and this was probably the best place so far. This is one we'll definitely come back to, maybe even before the end of the month. It was a very popular place, judging by the crowds, and there were so many fun activities for kids. We kept Leah really busy trying everything out.
It started out with a horse-drawn wagon ride that took us to the family fun fest area. There was a big pavilion filled with hay stacks and she loved climbing them, dancing on them, and going down the little slide and going through the tunnel. She was fascinated with the hay and spent quite a while examining it. She got to go on her first pony ride. We thought it was cool that she wasn't scared at all. John walked around with her and she gave me a big wave and a smile every time she went around. She rode around on a go-cart, sitting on my lap while John pushed us around. She had fun checking out the inside of a tee-pee and wandering through a little corn maze.
She loved going on all the slides, especially the big 50 foot double slide. John sent her down the slide totally on her back so she wouldn't fall and hit her head. Everyone was laughing, especially Leah. She was giggling and kicking when I caught her at the bottom. She went down the slide about 6-7 times. It was absolutely hilarious to watch. She couldn't get enough of it.
When we were done with everything there, we took the wagon ride back to the little market and Leah had fun looking at the pumpkins and flowers. In the store, she found the resident dog lying there on his blanket with a few kids petting him. She went right up to him and gave him a hug, twice, and was so excited about him, shouting and pointing at him "doggie! doggie! wooo wooo". We brought home some delicious apple pie, a bag of apples and some other fun things.
I'll load some pictures here when I get a chance, but in the meantime, you can check out the photos on the right.
This past weekend, we took her to the Botanical Gardens (after a delicious meal at the Korean restaurant, of course). We'd never been to the Botanical Gardens before since it's not really our kind of thing, but we'd heard that kids seem to like going there. It turns out they have a really neat children's garden with fun activities and there were a lot of kids running around. We didn't stay all that long actually since we got there kind of late, plus, the minute we walked into the gardens, Leah, with her big "oooo's" and "aaaah's", walked right onto the splash pad fountain that was shooting water into the air and got her pants and shoes all wet. But that was just the beginning in terms of getting soaked.
We found the children's garden, and she had fun playing in the sandbox and trying to figure out what to do with the buckets and scoops.
And then she saw the other children playing with the water pumps, filling up buckets and watering cans with water. It was cute watching Leah's discovery process. She tried to pump the water herself and fill the buckets. In typical Leah style, when John tried to show her how to pump the water, she refused any help and wanted to do it all herself.
But in the process, her pants and shoes and jacket got soaking wet. Since we didn't want her to catch a cold and it was almost closing time anyway, we decided it was time to go. She ended up riding home without pants and shoes on. Reminder to self: bring a change of clothing in the car.
Pictures to come....
It started out with a horse-drawn wagon ride that took us to the family fun fest area. There was a big pavilion filled with hay stacks and she loved climbing them, dancing on them, and going down the little slide and going through the tunnel. She was fascinated with the hay and spent quite a while examining it. She got to go on her first pony ride. We thought it was cool that she wasn't scared at all. John walked around with her and she gave me a big wave and a smile every time she went around. She rode around on a go-cart, sitting on my lap while John pushed us around. She had fun checking out the inside of a tee-pee and wandering through a little corn maze.
She loved going on all the slides, especially the big 50 foot double slide. John sent her down the slide totally on her back so she wouldn't fall and hit her head. Everyone was laughing, especially Leah. She was giggling and kicking when I caught her at the bottom. She went down the slide about 6-7 times. It was absolutely hilarious to watch. She couldn't get enough of it.
When we were done with everything there, we took the wagon ride back to the little market and Leah had fun looking at the pumpkins and flowers. In the store, she found the resident dog lying there on his blanket with a few kids petting him. She went right up to him and gave him a hug, twice, and was so excited about him, shouting and pointing at him "doggie! doggie! wooo wooo". We brought home some delicious apple pie, a bag of apples and some other fun things.
I'll load some pictures here when I get a chance, but in the meantime, you can check out the photos on the right.
This past weekend, we took her to the Botanical Gardens (after a delicious meal at the Korean restaurant, of course). We'd never been to the Botanical Gardens before since it's not really our kind of thing, but we'd heard that kids seem to like going there. It turns out they have a really neat children's garden with fun activities and there were a lot of kids running around. We didn't stay all that long actually since we got there kind of late, plus, the minute we walked into the gardens, Leah, with her big "oooo's" and "aaaah's", walked right onto the splash pad fountain that was shooting water into the air and got her pants and shoes all wet. But that was just the beginning in terms of getting soaked.
We found the children's garden, and she had fun playing in the sandbox and trying to figure out what to do with the buckets and scoops.
But in the process, her pants and shoes and jacket got soaking wet. Since we didn't want her to catch a cold and it was almost closing time anyway, we decided it was time to go. She ended up riding home without pants and shoes on. Reminder to self: bring a change of clothing in the car.
Pictures to come....
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Dentist and Doctor Visits
During the past week, Leah got poked and prodded at the dentist and the doctor. Yes, we're a little late with going to the dentist, since these days they say you should take babies in for a look-see as soon as they start getting teeth in, or by 12 months old. Well, Leah just turned 15 months old and has all her teeth in already (except for the 2nd year molars). The dentist said I was doing a great job with brushing them so far. She was happy that I found something that worked (the electric toothbrush) and that I did it anyway even if Leah didn't like it. She noticed some crowding with her teeth and said she saw orthodontics in Leah's future, but hopefully it's a little early to say for sure.
Leah also had her 15 month check-up at the doctor. Leah had to get shots, a TB skin test, and worst of all, we tried to let them draw blood for tests. The last time we tried this, they weren't able to get enough blood for all of the tests. And we never took her back because we didn't want to put her through it again. Well, since we were both there this time, we thought we might try it again. But once again it turned into a 15 minute torture session and this time they weren't able to get a single drop of blood. By the time she came out, she was all sweaty and very upset!
Leah also had her 15 month check-up at the doctor. Leah had to get shots, a TB skin test, and worst of all, we tried to let them draw blood for tests. The last time we tried this, they weren't able to get enough blood for all of the tests. And we never took her back because we didn't want to put her through it again. Well, since we were both there this time, we thought we might try it again. But once again it turned into a 15 minute torture session and this time they weren't able to get a single drop of blood. By the time she came out, she was all sweaty and very upset!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Potty training update
We kind of put potty training on hold after the first few attempts, since Leah seemed more interested in playing with the potty than actually using it. No problem, I figured it was probably just too early for her. But tonight at bathtime she did something interesting. She climbed out of the tub (something she's been practicing lately), sat on the potty and went pee immediately, and then climbed back into the tub all by herself! Smart girl!
Staycation
We had a great staycation (stay-at-home-vacation) and our little family bond has grown even stronger in these last two weeks. During the last three months, John's work and travel schedule has been pretty relentless and he hasn't been home much, so this was a much needed break for him and it was really nice to have him home for a change. Leah gets noticeably happier when the three of us are hanging out together, and she was just thrilled to bits having us both around 24/7 day after day. It was like a never-ending weekend.
Leah has become so lovey-dovey and affectionate lately. Without any prompting, she runs over to us and gives us tight hugs and sloppy kisses all the time. In restaurants, she often grabs our arm (whoever is sitting next to her), pulls us toward her, and gives our arm a really long hug and a kiss. What a sweetie!
Other new things she's doing lately:
Running around in a deliberately silly and exaggerated fashion when she's really happy. Stomping and pounding her feet, running in place, or stomping one foot as she walks, just because.
Making animal sounds. She does this all day long every chance she gets! She's still crazy about dogs and cats, and points them out wherever she sees them, saying "doggie!.......woo hoo ooo", "cat!......maah, maah, maah". I've even heard her do this in her sleep! She has also starting making the sounds for sheep, bear and duck. She has even started crawling around on her hands and knees pretending to be a dog....going "woo woo hoo".
Saying "Hi!" and "Bye bye" and waving. She says these very clearly and enthusiastically. When I walk into the room, she says "Oh Hi!" in her cute high voice.
Shaking her head "yes" and "no". She has even started shaking her head "no" when I start singing to her. We have a whole repertoire of silly made-up songs in Dutch that we sing to her all the time (which she used to love), and sometimes I start singing and she shakes her head no for each one and makes noises like, "uh-uh-uh-uh, hey stop that". So she won't let me finish any of my songs! Well, can you blame her? But there is one song that she demands all the time, and that's the one that Beppe taught her in Dutch. She loves that song and pounds on her head when she wants to hear that song because that's one of the hand gestures in the song. When she does let me finish a song, she claps enthusiastically at the end of it.
Speaking of clapping, when she sees people clapping or cheering on tv, she always imitates it. If people have their arms in the air, she does that, too. She also loves waving her arms around imitating the orchestra conductor when she is watching one of John's classical music dvd's.
Twirling. She loves to twirl, and when we say the word twirling, she starts twirling. She even starts twirling on her own a lot and asks "Dis?" as if she's asking "what's this called?" When we say dancing, she starts dancing, and when we say jumping, she starts jumping. It can be quite entertaining!
Pointing to all her body parts. She is getting really good at pointing these out accurately when we ask" Where's Leah's.....". I have to get this on video soon. So far, she can point out her head, hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, cheeks, tummy, belly button, arm, leg, foot, toes, fingers and thumbs.
Holding out her counting fingers when we ask "How many.......are there?". We've been working on counting for a long time, and started showing her how to count on her fingers. Beppe got her a really great book for counting animals, and she loves it. She brings it to us all the time to read to her and always holds out her fingers like she's trying to count.
Blowing bubbles in the bathtub. She loves laying on her stomach in the bathtub, blowing bubbles in the water, and dunking her ears in the water. She also makes swimming and kicking movements. I think we'll definitely need to sign her up for baby swim classes soon since she loves the water.
Learning so much. It seems like her receptive language skills are just taking off lately. She learns new words so quickly. We label and name things all the time for her, especially since she's always asking "Dis?" "Dat?" over and over again. When we're looking at a book or magazine or something, we only have to say a word a few times and then when we ask "Where's the.....?", she can accurately point to the object. She can follow simple directions, too, like Go show Daddy, Go give that to Daddy, Come here, Stand up, Sit down, Give Mommy/Daddy a kiss/hug, Go get your teddy bear/doggie, Give your teddy bear/doggie a kiss/hug, etc. She can pick words out of conversation and point to things that we're talking about.
Speaking funny jibberish. Her babbling has become very interesting and entertaining lately. There's definite rhythm and pattern to her sounds. She is so expressive and vocal. We love how she's always "ooohing" and "aaaahing" about everything. Plus when she takes a first bite of something she likes, she goes "mmmmmm!". And she has started making really funny, new sounds which always cracks us up. She speaks to us like she's conversing. We just answer back and pretend along with her. It's really cute. We can't wait until she can start putting words together. It will be so fun to hear what she has to say.
Pretending. She puts her doggie/teddy bear to bed and covers them in a blanket and says night night or bye bye. Plus, she tries to brush and floss their teeth. I got her a new electric toothbrush recently for her, which she likes a lot better than a regular toothbrush. She has even started cooperating with having her teeth brushed now that we have this new toothbrush. So when I'm done doing her teeth, I sometimes let her play with it, and she tries to use it on her stuffed animals. How cute is that?
Pretending. She puts her doggie/teddy bear to bed and covers them in a blanket and says night night or bye bye. Plus, she tries to brush and floss their teeth. I got her a new electric toothbrush recently for her, which she likes a lot better than a regular toothbrush. She has even started cooperating with having her teeth brushed now that we have this new toothbrush. So when I'm done doing her teeth, I sometimes let her play with it, and she tries to use it on her stuffed animals. How cute is that?
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