Yes, if I pick out an outfit and it isn't what she had in mind, she pushes it away, frowns, and screams 'NO!' Then I have to open her drawers and ask her what she wants to wear. She'll either pull something out, or she'll say something like 'dress'. And then she'll say a color. Today, for our playdate (which you'll read more about later), she insisted on wearing her purple (porpor) dress. For sushi the other night, she insisted on wearing her purple sequined disco dress. I remedied that with putting purple pants under it. Seems as though purple is a trend here. She knows other colors, too, so I'm positive she's not just saying the same one over and over....
I can't express how much I love watching her learn. Here are some examples of what she's been doing lately.
She has a bunch of new words every day. Cauliflower (cofflower) is one of my favorites. She's also been putting strings of words together (perfectly enunciated!), such as 'slow down', 'sit down', 'wake up' (TOO cute, if one of us is lying down with our eyes closed, she repeats this over and over until we open our eyes), 'find more' (relating to her beads, when she's holding only one string of them), and 'hi cutie' (my favorite statement... you should just hear her say this when she sees a dog or something else that she likes!).
Her word associations are getting bigger, too. For example, she'll look at a body of water and say a string of words: water, beach, papa, fish, swim, turtle, boat... Just thinking of everything she can when it comes to water.
She answers questions. What do you want for breakfast? On any given day, I might hear one of these: 'Pancake (pahkek), egg, cereal (cerel), cheese'. The girl knows what she wants.
She's mastered the surprised sucking in of air. The 'aah!' with wide eyes and big open-mouthed smile. To die for!
Oh, and she's really been getting emotional about things. If something happens that she feels bad about (Nemo getting lost in the ocean, for example), she frowns and very sadly says 'aaaaaw, oh no'. Or, at music class, when Amy, the teacher, plays the lullaby, Riley lays down in my lap and quietly sobs until the song is done. Strange... I asked the teacher about this, and she told me that the song is played in minor chords, which can invoke sad feelings in some people. Amazing. And very endearing.
If she sees a spill or a mess, she'll say 'Oh boy'. Better than saying 'shit', which she repeated after me a few times when I spilled things. The 'oh boy' was my attempt at a diversion, and it seems to have worked. Yeesh! Time to start the money jar for swears that slip out of mommy and daddy.
We bought her a new slide for the yard last week. The first few times she climbed the stairs, her climb was accompanied by her repeating 'Oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh'. Don't know exactly when she picked that one up, but I love it. Not sure if I got that on video, but we'll find out this week, when I edit the new video I have. Here are the photos, courtesy of Russell's new-ish Holga camera that he loves so much. So do I. Reminds me of the photos from when I was a kid. It's a reminiscent thing when you have a kid, I guess.
Riley and I hosted a totally fun playdate today. It was the 'Glamour Gals' playdate. For the moms. We had Lindsay and Siobhan doing hair and makeup, and Maureen waxing. It went for 5 hours, and was so much fun, that none of the babies even got upset. We played in the house, in the yard, and everywhere in-between. Here are some shots from today. Starting with my new, much-needed haircut, and the other hot mamas!!
The ladies who made the beauty happen (sorry, Maureen, didn't get a photo!)
And, the aftermath. Only took me an hour to clean up. My gawd, the hair was flying today as much as the toys were!!
At the end of the day, I was running Riley's much-needed bath, and she was hanging out, playing, as always. She got very quiet, so I went to check on her, and here's exactly how I found her. Ready for bed, eh?
And to end today's blog, I did another one tonite, backdated to our Bongard week in Florida. Enjoy!
