Ack.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Never Ceases to Amaze
I may have already said it (I think it all the time), but it never ceases to amaze me how much Claire seems to learn and grow every day. Besides just the walking that's becoming more and more confident, I realized this week that she actually understands a lot of the things I'm saying. I think it first sunk in when my family was here and we would ask her where Kirby (the dog) was. She would instantly look around for her and even point at the stairs if she knew Kirby had gone upstairs. Other examples are the everyday commands she reacts to when prompted: "please sit down" - a la the bathtub, "ahhhhh" - meaning open your mouth and let me see what you just put inside, "look up" - super useful when washing her hair, and "put your head down" - nice when we're putting her to bed. :)
There are other funny "tricks" that she's picked up recently. She definitely knows "aye, aye, cap'n" (she salutes), "high five" (self explanatory, I think), and "hungry" (single finger in the mouth). James was trying to teach her to "punch it in" this morning; we'll see when that one sticks.
Tonight she was even identifying various body parts (well, the nose and the ear) and is starting to get curious about the bellybutton which I'm pretty sure is from that book they're reading at school. I know there's more, but that's all I've got off the top of my head.
She shows her sensitivity by instantly reacting to inflections in my voice. When I ask what happened to her sock, she'll touch her bare foot; when I ask for her to put on her jacket, she'll extend an arm; when I tell her no sternly enough, she immediately throws herself forward and does a dramatic wail (Diana's seen it; she thought it was hilarious). Yeah, this one's going to be a handful. :)
One bad habit that she had picked up was biting my shoulder (and sometimes not really wanting to let go immediately). It wasn't for attention because I'm usually carrying her at the time or in aggression because it's usually in a good mood ... I honestly think she was just super excited and needed to emote. Luckily, I think I broke her of that one within a week. And she knows when she's not supposed to do something (like bite my shoulder) because she'll start going towards it and suddenly start shaking her head instead. I just have to make sure I don't laugh else she takes it as a sign to go ahead!
I keep saying this at each milestone, but I love this age. What an amazing period she's going through, and how fun! I can't wait to get home every day to check to make sure she still remembers everything from the day before and to see whether she picked up something new. She has such a love of life and never ceases to explore everything around her to the nth degree. Sure, that may mean sometimes that she stays awake easily for 10 hours at a time (I'm not joking; today was another example), but it's all a trade-off, right?
There are other funny "tricks" that she's picked up recently. She definitely knows "aye, aye, cap'n" (she salutes), "high five" (self explanatory, I think), and "hungry" (single finger in the mouth). James was trying to teach her to "punch it in" this morning; we'll see when that one sticks.
Tonight she was even identifying various body parts (well, the nose and the ear) and is starting to get curious about the bellybutton which I'm pretty sure is from that book they're reading at school. I know there's more, but that's all I've got off the top of my head.
She shows her sensitivity by instantly reacting to inflections in my voice. When I ask what happened to her sock, she'll touch her bare foot; when I ask for her to put on her jacket, she'll extend an arm; when I tell her no sternly enough, she immediately throws herself forward and does a dramatic wail (Diana's seen it; she thought it was hilarious). Yeah, this one's going to be a handful. :)
One bad habit that she had picked up was biting my shoulder (and sometimes not really wanting to let go immediately). It wasn't for attention because I'm usually carrying her at the time or in aggression because it's usually in a good mood ... I honestly think she was just super excited and needed to emote. Luckily, I think I broke her of that one within a week. And she knows when she's not supposed to do something (like bite my shoulder) because she'll start going towards it and suddenly start shaking her head instead. I just have to make sure I don't laugh else she takes it as a sign to go ahead!
I keep saying this at each milestone, but I love this age. What an amazing period she's going through, and how fun! I can't wait to get home every day to check to make sure she still remembers everything from the day before and to see whether she picked up something new. She has such a love of life and never ceases to explore everything around her to the nth degree. Sure, that may mean sometimes that she stays awake easily for 10 hours at a time (I'm not joking; today was another example), but it's all a trade-off, right?
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