20 months!

Wow. Wow. Wow. So much development...

We have a language explosion going on over here. Let's take colors as an example. She can identify by name and sign MANY colors. She often names crayon colors as she puts them back in the bag in which we're keeping them. When she's being lazy and not thinking she automatically says "Yellow" or "Purple," those seem to be her default colors, but usually if she pauses to think about it she comes up with the right color. Sometimes she'll call a secondary color by the name of one its primary color constituents. For example, she often calls "green" "yellow," even when she's thinking about it, and she has called "pink" "red" once or twice. Interesting...

She also knows the names and sounds of many, many animals now. She sometimes sings when asked what a pig says. That is thanks to Sandra Boynton- "A cow says 'moo.' A sheep says 'baa.' Three singing pigs say 'la, la, la.' 'No, no,' you say, 'that isn't right. The pigs say 'oink' all day and night." Well... la, la, la is what sticks in Caroline's mind. So cute. For some reason she refuses to say the word "horse." She signs "horse," but calls horses "Nays." And she hasn't quite figured out what a doggies says. There are simply too many alternatives. Her coolest animal noise? "What does a dolphin say, Caroline?" And to that she clicks her tongue.

Caroline can be SUPER helpful. She has fun cleaning up- nesting stacking blocks one inside another, putting toys in bins, and crayons in their bag (as mentioned above.) As I type this Kev is giving her pieces of laundry that need to end up in or near her room and she is running them to her room. She's asking for "more" at the moment because she's having so much fun with this! Kev just went into her room to see if she put things where he told her to put them and I heard him loudly praising her! She must have! Excellent receptive language ability and a great helping impulse!

She is VERY into goodbyes right now. She says goodbye to anyone who seems to be leaving a room that she's in or who gets into a car near her, often repeatedly. "Buh-buy-e!" This is often accompanied by multiple blown kisses. She'll start saying goodbye to me when we get a few blocks from campus. "Buh-buy-e, mommy, buh-buy!" And earlier this week I dropped her off at the child care at the Y and before I even finished signing her in she was loudly saying goodbye and blowing kisses. It was as if she were saying "Get out of here, mama. When you go, I PLAY!" One time last week when we picked her up from childcare at the Y she eagerly came to us and we said "Please say bye-bye, Caroline." She happily obliged and added in a blown kiss and a "Tank you!" We were beside ourselves with pride.

She LOVES the Y. And so do we! She has a blast in the child care. She signs "play" when she wants to go there and says "Y!" She and daddy have been to the pool there several times, I took her once. The past two Saturdays she played in childcare while Kev and I worked out and then I got her in her suit and took her into the shower with me. I got myself cleaned up and dressed and took her out to Kev who took her swimming while I headed out for other errands. She's gotten quite good at understanding and accepting that sometimes several things have to happen before she can have what she wants. For example, when I pick her up at child care, I'll say "Do you want to go swimming, Caroline?" And she'll reply excitedly, "POO!" Could mean a b.m., but in context we know what it means! Then I'll say "Alright, well, first we have to change you into your swim suit and water shoes, then we have to take a shower, then mommy has to get dressed, and then we will go find daddy, and then you'll put on sunscreen, and then the pool." She responds to this with a sing-song "Oh-kay!" When she asks "poo?" in the midst of this process, I explain again the preceding steps and she again says "Oh-kay!" She is getting so much more patient- much, though not all of the time. So gratifying!

She enjoys clapping along to particularly rhythmic pieces. Kev is very impressed at her ability to keep a steady beat. She doesn't sing much yet- unless of course she's answering the question "What does a pig say?" In time...

As I've been working on this post she has said "mine" several times. Guess she's got the personal possessive pronoun down!

Once or twice when asked if she will say "Caroline" she has pointed at herself and said "Kine."

Our dear friends Jonathan and Tish had their first baby six weeks ago. Her name is Raine Mercy. Caroline both signs and says her first name! They were over to visit last night and we put out a towel for a diaper change. It is still on the floor in Caroline's nursery. She looked at it today and said "Baby!" And then she said 'Pahker." Parker is the name of the first born son of our dear friends Jenn and Sean (born on January 6th of 2010). She hasn't seen him in weeks, but will be seeing a lot of him this fall as Kev will be providing childcare for him a few times a week (and for another little boy, even younger, Alistair). Kev was amazed at her memory when she came out with Parker's name as she thought about "baby"! Shortly after she signed and said "Rain."

Ethan and Fiona were here for three long Mondays in July while their mom was teaching her nursing school boot camp. Caroline seems to call Fiona "Fee" or "Fend". Aww...

She is very lovey- loves to give hugs and kisses.

She continues to LOVE the outdoors. It has been mercilessly hot this summer. She doesn't care. We do. We negotiate. Kev endures it much more frequently than I do. Bless him. He has a lower tolerance for it than I do! She is very much enjoying kicking a ball outside. And she loves throwing balls too. She has quite an arm. Catching is something she hasn't quite figured out yet, but throwing she's got! She likes picking up rocks and other small items and examining them closely. Despite the candleholder story below, she isn't prone to eating things she shouldn't any more.

However, she seems to now be working on her 2 year molars... will it ever end??? For months she cut those canines, with bouts of great agony, and now these??? She's been more prone to chewing on things she shouldn't since this has started up the past few days.

Her hair is growing rapidly. We really should cut it because it is often in her eyes, but I just want to let it grow... at least until her second birthday! We'll see. Sometimes she'll leave in a clip or a bow... sometimes.

In nursing news, she's fond of announcing when she'd like to change sides by saying "Othuh side!" She often giggles and says "tank you" before latching on. There truly is some particular sweetness with toddler nursing.

Sometimes she appears to "read" to herself. She is definitely enjoying books immensely right now. She goes through phases. Its nice when she's in a book phase.

She loves to rock. And Kev was impressed this month at her ability to use the word "rock" as both a noun and verb without confusion.

Sleeping has, for the most part, been much better of late. Praise Jesus! And may it continue.

We head to Atlanta for Kev's cousin Brad's wedding this weekend. It looks like Caroline might get some serious quality time with her Godmother who is unusually free this weekend. And we know we'll all have quality time with family. Should be fun. And next weekend, right after I take my Latin final we get on a plane to head up to Albany, New York. We'll be renting a car and driving over to western Mass for a memorial service for Kev's Great Aunt Betsy. And then we'll head back to Albany where my mom and dad will pick us up and take us to Syracuse for a few days. We'll be staying with Uncle Dan and working on planning his wedding ceremony. It will be a whirlwind trip, but it should be good. She is such a good traveller! So... much fun ahead.

Pictures to follow soon. We haven't taken many this month. We'll see what we can get up this weekend.