Even though it sometimes seems she isn't getting much out of her Kindermusik classes, she has clearly been paying attention because she is starting to imitate things she's learned there. In one of the story books we read, there's a line that says "Ladybug can stop, and make no sound", and the teacher uses a hand gesture for "stop", and then does the "shhh" gesture. Lately, Leah has been doing that totally on her own, out of the blue. She says "stop" (sounds like "dop"), using the hand motion and then "shhh!".
And the other thing is that we have quiet time in class (where we all lay down for a few minutes while listening to soft lullaby music), and when the teacher turns the lights on and off, she says "Get out your counting fingers .....1....2....3.....shhhh!" and then she turns on/off the lights. So lately, Leah climbs up on top of her toy box where there's a light switch, and she imitates this whole sequence. She holds out her fingers like she's counting, while making her counting sounds, and then flips the light switch and goes "shhh!"
Knock Knock. Now that Leah can open all the doors around the house, I've taught her how to knock on the door and say "knock knock". Not a bad thing to learn. In Leah speak, it sounds like "nah nah". She likes to knock on the door to John's music room, which is always closed. And she has figured out that the other sliding door in her bathroom is the music room, too. She brings over the footstool to the door, and stands on it and tries to pick the lock while she knocks on the door, saying "nah nah".
Whenever she's hungry, she goes to the fridge and tries to open it. Or she leads us over to the fridge to get her something. And when she is in the fridge, the best way to get her out of it is to ask her to close the door and then praise her profusely. It works every time.
She sings all the time these days, and her singing is getting a little more complex, too. Now it goes on a little further than just the "dah dah dah, dah dah dah" (to the tune of Jingle Bells). Now she keeps going. She loves to say the word "sing" and she says it perfectly.
A new word just this week is "cracker", which sounds like "ka ko". She says it on her own and usually with a question mark, "ka ko"? And her favorite crackers are Goldfish crackers, Nilla wafers, and of course, Teddy Grahams. I usually get a few bonus hugs when we're eating Teddy Grahams.
Ever since her birthday when she got her first stickers, she has loved playing with stickers. We now have stickers stuck to just about every cabinet, door, appliance, mirror, and piece of furniture in the whole house.
She just loves coloring in her coloring books. This is one of her favorite activities these days, and she's doing this every day. Thank goodness for these cool Color Wonder markers that go on clear and only work on the special paper. She loves to hang out with me on the playmat and color together (and even throws a fit when I try to get up). She decides which marker I can have and spends most of the time taking my markers from me and then handing me new ones (So bossy!). She understands when I say "go get another marker" or "go get one for mama", and she runs and gets it. (She also loves coloring with crayons, but we have to be careful since she's already drawn on the fridge, the dishwasher, the table legs, and the walls. So let's just say we've put those away for now.)
"Wow" is still one of her favorite words. She uses it all the time. Sometimes it's a big, long, drawn out "wow oh wowow wow!" that goes on forever, or a loud "Whoah!" But the best ones are the whispered "wow's". A while back, the neighbor's cat came up on our deck and looked at us through our patio door, and Leah gasped and then did a really soft "wow". And the other day, she found a clear plastic coin bank in one of her dresser drawers (the size of a can of cola) with Korean coins in it, and every time she would shake it, she would tilt her head and then whisper "wow!" It was really funny.
She loves Korean food. She gets so excited when we go to the Korean restaurant. Her favorite things are the soup with tofu, mandu guk (dumpling soup), and chap chae (glass noodles with veggies). She gobbles it all up and has so much fun. She sways and dances in her booster seat, tries to charm everyone by smiling at them, and loves to practice her chopstick skills. The last time we were there, she actually managed to use her chopsticks to eat the chap chae noodles, and she was able to use the spoon to drink the soup all by herself.
And last but not least, she is now physically maneuvering us and man-handling us. She started this actually a long time ago, with her second Kindermusik class (when she didn't want me to lay down for quiet time). If she doesn't like me laying down, she will try to pull and push me up. She will even grab me by the head and try to lift me! And then she goes around my back and tries to push me up. If I'm sitting and she wants me to stand and pick her up, she'll grab me around the ears and make a concerted effort to try to pick me up. She's pretty darn strong, too. So far it's kinda cute that she's doing this, but I'm sure we'll have to put a stop to it eventually!
