"This is a duck."

It's nearly 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Kev is sleeping because, bless his heart, he was up with Caroline for I'm not sure how long in the middle of the night. Though she was also up during that time she is now WIDE awake. We've been chilling in her nursery.

I'ts now approaching 9 a.m.. We've had some breakfast, looked at some puppies on you tube, read some books, played with a new puzzle... at the moment she's engaged in one of her favorite activities- emptying books off a shelf.

When I started to post she had found a bag of cotton balls and spent about 10 minutes emptying the bag and then refilling it over and over again, and then she realized she could pull the cotton balls apart and started working on that, until she caught sight of her new crib (which arrived yesterday!) and stretched her arms up to indicate she wanted to get in. She LOVES this crib (that doesn't mean she opted to sleep well in it last night, but enjoying being in the crib is a good first step. Right after Kev set it up she got in and just played and played. It is not dramatically different than the crib we were borrowing, but she seems to know it is different!

She's out in the kitchen now playing with her fridge phonics game. Every time I start to write about what she's doing, she changes location and activity! That's our busy girl!

Earlier this morning she picked up my cell phone, opened a drawer in her dresser, dropped it in, and closed the door! I'm glad I was watching all the while. I have enough trouble keeping track of my cell phone without a little borrower stashing it in secret places!

Last night we had a visit from Nancy, my field site supervisor from seminary days and the woman who officiated at our wedding. She was supposed to spend the morning with us today, but crazy weather here in Nashville led to some flight changes and an evening visit it was. She brought Caroline a marvelous, simple puzzle, with four touch and feel farm animals that lift up and out- a duck, a cow, a horse, and a sheep. Nancy and I both heard Caroline say, more than once as she picked up the duck "This is a duck." Friends, this might be her first sentence. She got such a reaction out of it she also called the horse a duck repeatedly, but... hey, we'll take it! She also, for no discernible reason, licked the sheep at one point. Silly girl!

She is in a phase where she definitely thinks she is communicating a great deal to us, but we understand very little of it. She is communicating with sounds and signs. She signs "baby" quite frequently, but we're not sure what she wants when she does that. Sometimes she just signs it when she hears the word, but other times out of the blue. She also sometimes signs "time". Clearly this first two signs have come from the opening sequence of her "Baby Signing Time" d.v.d.. She occasionally signs milk when she's getting frustrated and wants to transfer from daddy to mommy. She signs her version of "eat" very frequently when she's hungry. I think she may have a few others too, but those are the major ones. Oh, of course, still more and all done. Though she still prefers shaking her head or screeching to signing "all done". She babbles very energetically, dramatically, and conversationally, and looks to us and waits for a reply, which we offer,but surely we disappoint her with our "Oh, is that right? Really? Tell me more." Or whatever happens to come out at the moment.

She LOVES water play. Often at meal time she motions for one of our water glasses. She'll start of drinking some water out of a straw, but then she starts dropping whatever is on her tray into the glass, which she then stirs with the straw. She seems amused by the fact that some things sink and some things float. She will drop ANYTHING into the water to see what will happen... better keep an eye on that cell phone... Last week she spilled the glass on her tray and was thrilled by the pool of water that accumulated. She splished and splashed and had a grand time!

She has started to play with the baby doll Mamie gave her this summer. She cradles it and hugs it. She also seems to especially like the teddy bear that was in her Christmas stocking this year. Though, in general, she's more interested in stuffed animals. She interacts with them and hugs them. She doesn't have one particular lovey, but is getting more lovey with soft toys!

She is AMAZING! She blows our mind daily.