Like a Sponge

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".