By the numbers

Hi Shira, 

Well, as we suspected, once you've begun talking you have advanced rapidly.  Now you might have better speech in the evening than you had in the morning.  You've started to recognize letters and numerals, too.  Only about a week ago I told your mom that you could name a foam bath toy shaped like '8'.  She was skeptical.  This was only about a week ago.  Well, this morning you did this reading of '10 little ladybugs' that is seen in the video.  Each time you do it you get better at enunciating.

We will try to capture you counting.  Right now you only go to 2 but are pretty entertaining when you cover your eyes and count 'one, two' repeatedly.  

We also have a few books with geometric shapes that you are pretty good at also.  You can also put solid items through the right openings on some toys we have.  The thing that is difficult is getting the footage while you don't know you're being recorded.  If you suspect that someone is using an electronic device you stop what your doing and try to gain possession of it.  We've had to curtail your use of our I phones to only times when we really need to distract you because you were getting too attached to them.  You are pretty adept at using them. 

The picture here is from your trip to the zoo with dad.  We went there one day while your big sis was at  Gan Israel summer camp.  I think it was the day she made challah.  

Love, aba

Daddy's Girl

Hi Shira,

Since I've been out of school for the summer I've been able to break your mom's grip on you.  I'm not saying that's been my goal.  It just seems to be the result of my being around the house so much more.  A few months ago I would have had a hard time just getting you to agree to going from your mom's arms to mine.  Now you will request that same move and will seek my soothing when something goes wrong.  You say 'daddy' constantly.  Although your mom and I agreed that you seem to say what sounds like 'daddy' in situations where it appears to mean something else.
You've developed a habit of having something in your grip almost all the time.  Frequently it is a stuffed animal with decided preference to dogs.  It could be anything though.  You don't mind hard objects, it doesn't have to be soft.  It doesn't have to be an animal, sometimes it's a toothbrush.  We done well in keeping you from getting attached to just one thing.  We don't want to get stuck in a disaster if we can't find the particular object. 

Generally your speech is improving.  You are often really trying to revise how your words come out.  You've worked hard on 'water,' 'color,' and 'bagel.'  It's actually pretty fun to listen to you try 'bagel.'  You'll get it.

Here's the stories behind the two videos.  On the first one you are doing what you sometimes do with the doll house stuff.  You are trying to sit on a chair that is meant for dolls about 4 inches tall.  Another time I caught you taking the bedding off of Barbies bed in the Dreamhouse and putting it on the floor where you tried to lay on it.  In the second one we are at your mom's Saturday market event.  She caught us dancing to a Bruce Springsteen song.  We drew a lot of attention but didn't convince anyone to come out of their seats and dance with us. 

You're still watching everything your sister does and trying to do it too.  We wish you would watch her more closely on toilet technique and less on climbing technique. 
Oh, we were at Kahneetah recently and you did the kids slide for the first time.  That was cool, but you needed guidance at the top and bottom and so it was hard on us to let you do it and keep track of your sis, too.  Maybe we'll get your uncle Ben's pictures of that soon so we can post them.

Love, Aba