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?