BTN update

That’s “better than nothin,” and that’s what this is! ;-)

Annika is adding words and skills at lightning speed. Here’s a partial, haphazard list of what’s happened lately:

--Eating with a fork. This one was a surprise – out for a Target prowl, Mamalah and I stopped for lunch at Marie Callender’s (it’s a pretty downmarket mall, y’all), and Annika sat in her high chair, thrilled to be at the grownups’ table. She started playing with my fork, then actually started using it on the food we brought for her! Over the course of one meal, she learned where to hold it to stab the bits of food, and how to not clock herself with it, and how not to bite it with her teeth. By dinner last night, she was using her (properly-sized) fork to eat everything but the stick of cheese, and the goldfish crackers. Amazing. And the whole restaurant was totes in love with her – she was being SO GOOD (she usually does, but it was especially apparent yesterday) and was so cute in her new outfit from babyGap. She said bye-bye to everyone as we left, hee!

--More writing. We got her some sidewalk chalk, and she’s been dividing her time between using it on our patio and stacking, piling, and tossing it in a little bucket.

--The great outdoors. We can finally let her loose out in the yard without her automatically putting EVERYTHING in her mouth – she’s more about running around than sitting down and stuffing her face with inappropriate vegetation – so we’ve been having lots of fun chasing after balls (BALL is her new thing, her favorite toy besides the frickin crayolas, aka “bababa”) and generally behaving like maniacs.

--Understanding questions and directions. She can follow some relatively complex directions; for instance, yesterday I pointed to a book on the floor and said, “Can you pick up the book and bring it to Mamalah?” She said “yeah,” and then did exactly that!

WORDS!
Mamalah
sun
crayola (bababa)
ball
yeah (for a long time, it’s just been “no!”)
washcloth
ball
enunciation of her p’s – helP, uP, etc.
attempting her name (variously, “Ana” or “Akaka”)