Bye, bye eeee-eye!

It's official - Shoshanna has been discharged from Early Intervention. She's on track or ahead (of her adjusted age of 17.5 months, which is what NY goes by until age 2) in every area.

So there you have it. We have no more preemie safety net.

The Super-Long Road Trip

On Friday, we spent 8.5 hours in the car driving to central Mass... Shoshanna did a very good job with the drive - lots of fun with toys and books and drawing, and when she got really very tired, she got her pacifier. On Saturday we went to Boredom War and saw lots of friends who we hadn't seen since our move to Buffalo 11 months ago. Dinner with other friends Saturday night, and then home again on Sunday (when Shoshanna did equally well with the drive). We had some major toddler-moments, particularly when Shoshanna was having to be kept out of the grownups' stuff and didn't have the space she's used to having to run. Even though she loves seeing people, she was definitely happy to get home and be allowed to run free.

Despite the rain and muck on Saturday, we escaped with relatively few bug bites (S has maybe 3 or 4, I have probably the same number, and Matthew got the worst of it - they decided his ankles were extra-tasty, even through his socks.

Saturday night Lisa and I were sitting on the couch with Shoshanna looking at a book full of pictures of hourses. Suddenly Shoshanna starts playing peek-a-boo. Lisa was very confused, but I noticed immediately that the horse on the page we were looking at had a long mane, which was falling down over its eye. Peek-a-boo, horse! On the drive out, she was looking at Soft as a Kitten and suddenly kissed the book. I was confused until I realized she was looking at a page that has a picture of a daddy kissing a daughter ("Daddy's moustache is rough. It tickles... just like grass does.").

And now she's waking up from her nap, so I must run...

Ee-yah Ah! Ee-yah Bah! Datdat!*

This morning, Shoshanna dumped her grapes out of her bowl, popped it on her head, and declared "Ee-yah Ah!" For those who don't speak her language, that means "It's a hat!" She's been using "ee-yah" for "it's a" for a while - I'm sure it stems from us responding, "Yes! It's a ..." when she started naming objects. The thing that struck me as remarkable about the bowl this morning was that it was the first time she's played "let's pretend" in that way - turning an object into something else - without grown-up prompting.

Other new words over the past 10 days or so (this list is in no way exhaustive):

stick (tih), eat (eee - spoken, not just signed), drink (dih - again, spoken in addition to signed) hat (ah!), door (doh), jacket (datdat!).

I'm sure there are a bunch more, but I can't think of what they are off the top of my head.

*It's a hat! It's a ball! Jacket!

Brace yourselves: the cute might hurt you.

This morning as Shoshanna and I were about to leave for daycare, Matthew gave her a kiss on the cheek. Then he said, "Kiss Daddy?" (which she will sometimes do on command, but not always) and leaned his cheek towards her. She took his head and steered it so that he had to kiss me instead. :^D

She is also sporting her best punk-rock/toddler-dressed-herself look today. Before she left for daycare, she had on her pirate t-shirt, a hot pink miniskirt (I want to add black and white striped tights, a jean jacket, and little combat boots and dress her as a punk-rocker for halloween), two strands of white mardi-gras beads (worn either around her neck or across her chest like a sash), and a purple, blue, and white tabletwoven belt.



New spoken words: cookie, jacket, booboo, up, door
New sign: beads (she loves her mardi-gras beads)

Shoshanna the Trained Monkey

Vocabulary and other cuteness, 20 1/2 months

Here's the current list including both words and signs:

Hi, bye, yes, no, mama, dada, uh-oh, done, ball, block (telling which of these she means is totally context-dependent - because both sound like "bah!"), bird, dog, keys, eat, drink, cheese, grape/raisin, up, glasses, book, more, draw, blankie/sleep, phone (unfortunately, these last two are signed & the signs are indistinguishable to us), wash, baby, shoes, spoon (poo!).

We've also heard bib, cookie, papa (for Opa), and she'll spontaneously pretend to snore if you mention sleep. She'll also pretend to sneeze if she hears an adult sneeze, and her pretend sneezes are a huge production as she tries to get her face arranged in the right expression and the noises all lined up right. It's hysterical.

"Uh-oh" is also particularly funny because she uses it whenever she sees something that's out of order - we were at a restaurant Saturday night and the busboy was wiping off a nearby table into his cupped hand (which Shoshanna couldn't see) and she saw this and declared "uh-oh!" If she sees something lying on its side, she'll say "uh-oh!" Sometimes she says it and I can't even see what's out of whack, but I know she must have perceived something amiss somewhere.

She's also babbling in things that sound very much like three-word sentences, although she's just mimicking adult speech patterns. I often think I've heard her say things like "I do it!" and "I got it!"

Toddler OCD is also starting to show its face. There is now one particular chair in which Shoshanna will sit to draw. She won't let us pull her up to the table in her high chair to draw - even though she can reach the table much better that way! She simply MUST sit in her drawing chair.

PartyGirl-in-Training

Shoshanna is working hard at being a party girl. While she isn's actually drunk in this picture, she sure looks like she is! This afternoon when she and I were out for a walk, however, we both had water bottles with us and about twice every block, I'd turn around (she had chosen to take her walk riding in the red wagon rather than in the stroller) and she'd be signing "drink" at me, clearly wanting me to take a drink of my water. It was like the toddler version of chanting "Chug! Chug! Chug!" Good thing it was only water. :^)

We had a good visit with Opa (or, as we got Shoshanna to say it, "Papa") and Grandma this weekend - wore the kid out good. She loves having whole groups of grownups to entertain her!