Adalyn knows her body parts, and has for quite a while now. She points out eyes, ears, nose, lips, tongue, teeth, hands, legs, toes, hair, and cheeks. She can point to them on herself, on us, and on her dollies.
Speaking of dollies, Adalyn has recently come to LOVE her dollies. She received three new dollies for Christmas, as well as a blanket and a wagon for them. Multiple times per day I have to swaddle a dolly or two, so she can go for a ride in the wagon. (Adalyn then pulls them around in the red wagon. It's adorable.) Each dolly has a name, and Adalyn can point out who is who. She also knows to hold them cradled in her arms and to rock back and forth, especially if we sing "Rock-a-bye Baby." She also does the same motion (rocking a baby) anytime she sees a baby or hears the word baby. Which brings me to her next talent, sign language!
Adalyn knows several signs, and picks up new ones SO fast! She can say baby, milk, finished, shoes, more, cat, sshhh (quiet), water, please, and thank you, to name a few. Please is definitely the most often used, because we require it for her to get what she wants. And boy, does she want!
Adalyn LOVES candy. She comes by it naturally, I suppose. We've taken a pretty laid back approach to what she gets to eat (she pretty much gets whatever she wants) and I'm hoping it doesn't come back to haunt us later. Don't get me wrong, she'll still eat good stuff too, but she's definitely a little candy hound.
It's starting to wear off now, but for awhile, Adalyn sniffed EVERYTHING. It started out with us making a big deal over her stinky feet, and turned into smelling everything. She smells something - her blanket, freshly washed hands, or a finger that she just stuck between her toes - then offers it to you to smell. Lovely, right?
Adalyn also knows many animals and their sounds. Sometimes the sounds she chooses aren't quite the interpretation I would choose for the sound the animal makes, but she uses them consistently, so I guess she knows what she's doing. She has some books about Australian animals that we've been reading for a few months now that she really likes. When we opened a new book at Christmastime that had a whole page dedicated to Australian animals, she started making the laughing sound of a Kookaburra without any prompting. It was so cool!
Adalyn LOVES music and dancing. She knows how to turn on the CD player in her room, as well as how to turn on any toy that makes noise. (I think it's the first thing she notices about something new.) She often asks to have the music on the TV turned on so she can dance. Every day this week that I've been home, we've started out our morning dancing. Her most famous moves are "The Sumo" (legs spread wide, stepping and swaying to the beat of the music) and "The Spin" (usually combined with The Sumo, but turning in circles.)
She doesn't speak much yet. She babbles frequently, but it usually takes some prompting to get a real word out. She says, "this?" often, usually asking the name of something, as in, "What's this?". She can say Mom and Dad ("Dut!"), bee, beep beep (the microwave), dog, up, and please.
Well, I think those are the highlights. We think she's pretty cool!
An oldie but goodie I found on an old SD card. I couldn't end the post without at least one photo.
