A Quick Update

We got a new camera in July; we love it, and now take way too many pictures. With so many photos to sort through, the blog is woefully behind, as you can see. We're working on it, but in the meantime, here at least is a text update. A will be 21 months old this weekend. Her vocabulary has exploded, and she's now taking in semi-complete sentences. When B is late to breakfast she'll yell across the apartment "Daddy sit down bup-est!" Frequent phrases include "A--- turn now" and "Mommy/Daddy don do dat". She can name all sorts of animals and insects, can count to 2 and sometimes 3,and is starting to learn colors. She recently went through a baby doll phase, and is now into matchbox-type cars and "choo choo tains" big time. Airplanes are also a favorite, and the local flight patterns seem to have shifted, so lucky us there's now one flying overhead "up up inna sky!" about every 2 minutes. On our recent trip to Maine we were on the Kennebec River and were treated to "MOMMY! DA BOAT!" every few minutes all week. Her beloved Bunny ("Money") continues to be her best friend through thick and thin. She's started to show potty-training interest, so we now have a little potty and accompanying book, but we're letting her take the lead on that. She likes music ("numy") and to sing along, especially when she knows some of the words, including for Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star; Old MacDonald; Happy Brithday and the alphabet song. She still loves reading, both with us and on her own, and is starting to get more interested in drawing and puzzles, and playing with her trains. She loves to help out, which she can actually do with some success these days, including with pushing her high chair back out of the way, reaching up and dropping dishes in the sink, putting laundry into the washer and dryer, and loading/unloading silverware from the dishwasher. She's just starting to want to call people on the phone (usually "A-tee Deh") and get the idea of talking back to them. She's ok with trying all sorts of new foods, except if they're "too picy". She learned "nosey" (Eskimo) kisses from her cousins H&W and that's her new favorite part of bedtime. Still a great sleeper, thank goodness. It's great fun to see her bloom into her own little person, and we're enjoying all the silliness and laughter of this age. And of course she's cuter than ever-- more photos soon, we promise!