In addition to all the walking, she's also becoming more communicative and interactive. She has several running jokes and her giggles are infectious. Some of the things that amuse her these days:
- When I am nursing her, she will often end up with her foot up by my face. So then I kiss her toes and she giggles. (Luckily, she's able to giggle with a nipple in her mouth without causing me pain, although it's made me nervous!)
- She likes pointing at her nose, the nose of a stuffed animal, your nose -- and then something that's not a nose (like a coaster). This sends her into a fit of giggles.
- One day, I put my face down on the ottoman. She thought this was hilarious. So now she will routinely go over to the ottoman, put her face into the cushion, and crack up. Then I'll do the same and she is rolling on the floor with laughter. Then she'll do it again too. We can spend a good 10 minutes on this "game." I have no idea why she finds it so funny, but it's fun to watch her so entertained and it gives me a chance to rest my head.
Her communication skills have really taken off -- in particular her receptive language skills. She seems to understand a lot more and will respond when we tell her things. Some examples:
- She's gotten a lot better at "clean up." She will help put things away and will proudly show me things that she has picked up and let me direct her to where they should be put.
- If we ask her something like, "Are you ready for lunch? Where do we go to eat?" she will go to her high chair. When she's hungry, she will also go to her high chair.
- She's a little bit better at communicating her diaper needs. Today, when I was prompting her to go to her high chair for lunch with question similar to the ones above, she looked at her high chair, pointed at it, but then reached up and patted me on the thighs and looked at her diaper changing station. Sure enough, when I picked her up and gave her a sniff, she was in need of a change before getting into the high chair.
- She has a few signs that she uses somewhat consistently. She will often say "guh guh" and put her palm to her mouth when she wants something to drink. (This is, I think, a modification of the sign for "water" that we use with her.) She will also make the "eat" sign some of the time and she can sometimes sign "more" and "all done." (Usually in response to us asking her, "Do you want more? Or are you all done?" and showing her the signs for each.)
- In general, if there's something she wants, she will point at it emphatically and say something that sounds kind of like, "get get" until we figure out what it is that she wants.
- When asked, she can point to her nose and hair consistently. She usually can also point to her eyes, mouth and ears.
- When she hears a dog barking, she gets quiet, waits for it to finish and then says, "Vau vau vau vau vau." In the last week, I've noticed that she also does this when she sees a dog -- or even a picture of a dog -- regardless of whether she hears the barking.
Although we absolutely love all the new and exciting changes that are happening, toddlerhood definitely has its challenges. When your screaming infant develops into a communicative little girl, it's hard to see her have a meltdown for no apparent reason. You get used to being able to understand what's going on and it's hard to feel that sense of helplessness again. It makes me feel even more excited for the changes that are yet to come, though. Knowing how much of a difference the small changes in communication are making is enough of a reminder that it gets a lot easier as they learn to show and tell you what's going on.
