Alphabet

Today was a pretty uneventful day. We actually didn't go anywhere until dinner time. We were supposed to go to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens, but the temps were in the 90s today. Since I try not to put sunscreen on Linda, I def didn't want to be out at 11am in that heat. I got some stuff done around the house and we went swimming after nap. She did really good in the pool today. Her new thing is to go up and down the pool stairs. She likes doing that and splashing.

Missy called and so we went to dinner at Friendly's. On the way home from Friendly's we were practicing our alphabet. I said "A" she said "A, B" I said "B" she said "C", etc all the way to L! After she said L she said P. So I took her back to M. She correctly to U, skipped V and said W. So I corrected her and she went to Z correctly. So she said the entire alphabet by herself except for 2 letters! I couldn't believe it! I thought that was so good for 15 months.

She is ready for bed so off I go!

Camping

This picture is not from camping, but it is a recent pic.

Well this weekend we went camping. Things started out kind of rough. Linda missed her nap and then had a diaper rash. She was crying in pain, for what I thought was no apparent reason. It was very strange. When I finally figured out the problem, she calmed right down. It was like she relaxed b/c she knew I knew what the problem was. I'm not sure what she ate to make her poop so acidic. She doesn't sit in her diaper.

Her memory is so amazing. Lynn came w/us and Cody, her dog, hopped out. Linda immediately said "Cody." It had been about a month since she had seen Cody, and she doesn't see him all that much, but she remembered. She is also amazing the way she thinks abstractly. We went down to the beach and played down there. When we came back I changed her diaper and said "oh you have sand in your pants." She looked at me and said "beach." I can't believe she remembers all these words we tell her only once or twice and remembers there is sand and it is at the beach. She was real good w/the fire. I was worried she would try to touch it. We told her hot and not to go near it, and she did not try to go near it one time. She is so good w/her hot and cold now too. When we got home she was walking barefoot on the driveway. The sun was beating down on it and she said "hot." She touches stuff that is cold and says cold too. Unbelievable. We were leaving the campground and going up over the bay bridge tunnel. She looked out her window and saw the ocean. She said "lake." I was so impressed w/this. The first time she saw a lake she just said "water." She remembered the lake she saw was big, and she was looking at a big body of water, so it must be a lake. Even though she was wrong, her thinking process is amazing. While we were camping I asked her if she wanted to use her crayons. She said crayons, and then started naming colors. Again, she knows exactly what you are saying much of the time, and can think so well. Amazing. She counted to six today all by herself. Tom said one, she said one, two. So Tom said two. She said three, Tom said three, etc all the way to six. Then she got distracted. I have heard her say eight after I have said seven. She probably does know her numbers all the way to ten. I usually count to 20 w/her. When we were taking walks at the campground we would come across various street signs. Linda loved looking at the letters and saying the ones she knew. She finally called a W correctly. Before if you showed her W, she would say M. She does that sometimes w/V and Y too. She knows a bunch of her letters now. Well that is about all from here. I know I'm missing a bunch of incredible stuff she did this weekend. Her amazing speech has really opened up everything else for her. She talks to me, so I know she is understanding, and I can move on to other stuff once she gets it. She is something people!

Could She Be Any Cuter?

I just got off the phone w/Aunt Deb. She politely reminded me it has been a few days since I blogged. My apologies to all who religiously follow Linda's Life (although I'm not convinced there are many of you out there!)

We started our day w/a nice walk. I have been trying to go in the mornings now w/the dogs. Since summer is here, that is about the only time I can go and not roast the dogs. We were walking and Linda saw a jogger go by. She said "run." Of course I was amazed at her. I had showed her the difference between walking and running and obviously she caught on. It is cute when she gets up now in the morning b/c sometimes she will say "walk." She likes to go on the walks and tell me all the things she is seeing.

After our walk we headed off to playgroup. We were making Father's Day crafts at the park. Linda had her first chance at painting. Let's just say we went right from playgroup directly to the bathtub. I didn't mind her getting all messy though. She had a great time. I know Tom reads this blog, so I can't reveal what the finished product is. She sat at the table and I would ask her what color she wanted to use. She would tell me what color she wanted. It was so cute. Sometimes she gets excited about colors and shouts them out. That is cute too.

Yesterday we went to Norfolk Botanical Gardens w/my dad. We had another great time there. I really do love that place. The weather was perfect. Linda ventured into the water a little further this time. We left the children's garden a little early and walked around the gardens. We parked the stroller in a grove of trees. Linda saw a goose and said "goose honk honk" I didn't even see the goose until she mentioned it. It is quite impressive that she names animals by name instead of their animal sound. When she first started talking everything was the animal sound. But she soon abandoned that and began saying the animal name.

We got an awesome gift in the mail today. Anyone who has been following this blog knows we wanted the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics. Aunt Deb came thru big for us! It came while Linda was napping. I set it up. She came into the kitchen and saw it and said "ABC" She went up to it and started putting letters in there. She is able to maneuver the letters correctly. She was dancing to the little songs it plays. I knew she would like it! Thank you Aunt Deb!

Today she was in her car seat and we were coming home. I heard her say "happy" and she was smiling away. I thought that was so cute. I told her I was so glad she was happy, and that I was happy she was in my life. I'm not sure what I did to receive so many blessings from God.

The Weekend

The weekend has been pretty uneventful. Saturday we got the entire garage cleaned out, and now my truck fits in there! Of course to do this, we needed a little help from our friends. Meaning, we needed someone to come take Linda. Aunt Lynn was up for the assignment. She came and walked Linda down to the park. Then they walked back and Aunt Lynn gave Linda lunch. Then they read books until I came in to put Linda down for her nap. I was very grateful to Aunt Lynn.

After nap we went swimming for a few min. This swim experience did not go as good. She was just kind of whiny and didn't want to be in the pool. The temp was 88, so it was not cold at all. At one point the water was warmer than the air. After swimming we went to Aunt Shannon's house. Linda loves going there b/c she gets to see Shannon's kids. Garette had a little birthday party, and Linda got to pull the first string on the pinata.

Today we went to church. It was a special stake conference and it was two hours. Linda did so good. I brought plenty of books and snacks and water. When we got home I told Linda how proud I was of her and that she did so good in church. She looked at me and said "Jesus" (that one is still hard for her to say). I teared up almost immediately. It was so sweet that she associates church w/Jesus. I'm telling you this kid is so smart. She just turned 15 months yesterday. How many 15 month old kids can make associations like that?

Shannon's kids are here today for the afternoon. When Linda gets up I'm sure she will have a ball!

Hot Hot Hot Day

It was stinking hot today. We took our walk in the morning. After that we got ready to go to playgroup. Linda said poop so I put her on the potty. She went pee on the potty. Then we went to an indoor play place called Birdies. She loves that place. Then she took her nap. When she woke up I was messing around in her room trying to get it clean. So I put some toys in her crib and vaccumed. I had some baby einstein flash cards w/animals on them. There are 32 cards in the pack. I showed all of them to Linda. She correctly named by name 28 of the 32 cards. I previously guessed her vocab to be 75-100. Maybe that is underestimated. I know she knows more animals by name than that alone. Not to mention all the other words. We were at subway today for lunch. She put her hand on the cold bottle of water and said "cold". When stuff like that pops out of her mouth it is just unbelievable to me. She has such an understanding of things already. I can tell her to open or close a door and she knows. Tom was in the bathroom and he opened the cupboard. She looked at him and said closed. I say to her to keep the cupboard closed. She was telling Tom to keep it closed. Too funny. Her attitude is getting better I think. We are having less issues each day. I tell her she needs to have a good attitude, b/c I don't want that word to have a negative meaning for her. So she looks at me and says "attitude." She has also gotten pretty good at saying "helicopter." She is reasoning so good. She knows what empty means. She took an empty box of crackers and looked in and said "crackers empty" She says "crackers" so good to. She really like crackers, but doesn't get them as much as she wants them. We did get some swimming in this afternoon. She did really good in the pool. We had Judy, Laurie, Rachel, and Liz over w/their children. It was fun. Well she is almost ready for bed, so I'll close. Thanks for reading!

Home and Poop

This will be a short blog as Linda is almost ready for bed. It was so cute today when we pulled in from going to storytime at the library. When we pulled into the driveway Linda said "home." It was so nice.

Linda pooped on her potty today for the first time. She walked up to me and said poop. I had bought her a potty a while back and just had it in the bathroom. She peed on it a couple times, but then started to cry when she peed in it. So we stopped doing that. When she said poop to me today I took her diaper off and sat her on the potty. Then I heard plop plop. Two little terds were in her potty. So I made a big deal about that. I'm not pushing her at all to be trained. It is very difficult, b/c she already is trained. She is trained to go in her pants. Sometimes I wish I had kept up w/the elimination communication stuff. She was doing real good w/that. We were just on the go so much. I couldn't watch her while in the car to see if she needed to go. So we'll see what happens. I would love for her to be potty trained by two. Who knows, this may be the one area she gives me problems with. I can't imagine it, but you never know. My Aunt Rita said I gave my mom lots of problems potty training and I wasn't trained until after 3.

Something Different

So far it has been a great day, as usual. Linda learned two new body parts. Butt and hips. She loves to say butt. It is cute. I was in the bathroom today and she was hugging on a towel that was hanging near the shower. She kept saying towel towel. I said to Linda, where is the yellow towel? She immediately left the white towel and walked over to the yellow ones hangin on the rack. I can't believe how smart she is.



We went to playgroup at a park today. There were only two other moms there. It was nice to get to know them a little bit better. Linda and the other kids got playing in a puddle. It was too cute to see them splashing around. We all sat down for lunch at about 11:30. The moms were amazed that Linda (14 months for another few days) was saying strawberry clearly, that she was identifying by name cars, trucks, and buses as they passed, that she was identifying by name some of her colors. They also said how happy she was. You could see they could tell there was something different about Linda, but they couldn't quite put their finger on it. I wanted to scream she doesn't have any poisons her body is trying to eliminate so she has a clear head! It is interesting to see people around Linda. She really is something special.

Clouds

We stopped at a thrift store today for the first time in months people. I came out w/$5 less dollars in my pocket, but w/the Leap Frog Learning Phonics Bus for $1.50! (This is not the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics we are dying to have.) I also got her a cute doll. She saw the doll and was saying doll! doll! It was cute. After the thrift store we went to Mt. Trashmore park. We pulled up and she as usual said park. It is so sweet when she says it. She gets so excited.

After that we went to Silver Diner w/one of our playgroups for lunch. Miss Mary came also. Linda says Mary every time she sees her. Sometimes she says Tiny (pronounce like T knee). That is one of Mary's nicknames from her family. Lunch was good and we came home and took a nap.

After nap, Liz and Ethan came over to swim. Aunt Lynn came over too. It was fun to have them over. Linda gets excited when she sees Liz and Ethan, and Aunt Lynn too. While we were waiting for Liz and Ethan, we decided to go outside to play. We went out the door, down the step, and Linda looked up in the sky and said clouds! She was so excited to see them. I didn't know she knew what clouds were. I have shown her pictures of clouds, but nothing to the effect of other stuff. It was so cute to see her excited. We walked around and she named some of the stuff she was seeing. That is cute when she does that too. She bent down and touched the grass and said grass. She said tree and flower, and chalk (she LOVES her sidewalk chalk) and slide and a bunch of other stuff. After Liz and Ethan left we went outside and played the rest of the day until dinner.

She did really good w/her attitude today. If she shows any little sign of it, I tell her it is unacceptable. She didn't give me much attitude today. She was real good at meal time too. She still enjoys eating and eats almost everything. But she will get choosy if there is more than one thing on her plate. I have been telling her that she can't fill up on one item. I tell her for example she needs to eat a bite of strawberry and then a bite of banana. She can't fill up on banana. At first she protested, and I said ok then you can sit there and not eat anything. She caught on. The last two days she has been very good about eating what I give her at a given time.

Tom is reading her books right now. She just said leopard when Tom pointed to a leopard and asked what it was. She also says penguin, koala, whale, crab, seal, snake, rhino, hippo, meercat, butterfly when he points and asked about them. Those are just a VERY SMALL number of animals this child knows by name. I knew she knew what a penguin was, but I hadn't heard her say it. I didn't know she knew what a leopard was. Amazing isn't she??

Tom has to go back out for a closing tonight, so I better go and put Linda to bed.

Ovals

We headed out early this morning to drop off a climber at Liz's house. Linda and Ethan (20 months) played for about an hour. Then we headed off to playgroup. Linda had a great time as usual. She loves being around other kids.

After her nap we headed to the Friend's school used book sale. We hit the jackpot there. I bought a box of books for $8.25. I just told them to keep the extra $1.75. I got books for .25 cents a book. I was wishing I would have remembered about it earlier and hit it this morning. On the way to the book sale Linda was in her car seat. We practice our alphabet and numbers a lot in the car. It is a nice way to keep talking to her and keep her busy. I started saying the alphabet. I said A, she said B. So I said B. She said C, I said C. She said D, I said D. Then I had to take over again until J. When I said J she said K. She then said P, so I had to reel her back to L. After P, I said RST for her. She then said U,V, W (she calls it double, and doesn't say the U part of double U. It is so cute), X,Y,Z. I thought she did pretty darn good for 14 months old (15 months on the 9th).

Tonight we were doing some puzzles. We had finished and I was doing something in the kitchen. She brought out the puzzle. I asked her to put it back. In the process of her putting it back, of course, she spilled it all over the floor. I told her it was time to clean up the puzzle. It was a shape puzzle. I peeked at her and she put the star in the correct place. She then came out into the kitchen holding the oval and said oval. I couldn't believe it. She also said the word puzzle very well tonight. Before she would just do the zzzz sound of the word. But tonight she said the whole word correctly.

She is in dream land now, which is where I'm headed!

She Learns Too Fast

I'm beginning to think I can't even keep up w/her! Tonight we were sitting at the table eating some dinner. It started to rain. She turned around looked out the window (it was down) and said "rain." I couldn't believe it. I guess it shouldn't surprise me now. She learns so fast. I have talked to her about rain before. Today it was raining a lot.

After dinner I was showing her some alphabet flash cards. Previously I would show her one and ask her what letter it was. She was able to identify A,B,C. The other letters I would ask her what letter it was and she would say A,B, or C. I would say no that's not correct and tell her the correct letter. Tonight after I asked her what letter X was, she said A. I said that's not correct. Instead of telling her what letter it was, I asked her again. This time she said X. Then I went to the letter Y. Same thing. She said A the first time and then I asked her again and she said Y. We went up for her bath after that so I couldn't do anymore letters. I'm curious as to what letters she knows. I wonder why she says A the first time. We were in Wal-mart and I saw one of those LeapFrog Fridge Phonics w/the letters and numbers. I pushed a button and it started singing the ABC song, she sang some of the letters with it. I have been looking for one used for a while, but I can't seem to find one. Maybe Grandma can buy us one??? wink wink. She is learning to spell her name. I say to her, "Linda, how do you spell your name?" I've only been doing it for a few days. Today she said some letters, but they weren't in the proper order. That will be so cute when she learns that. The cool thing about her learning is I don't sit her down and say ok it's learning time. You must look at books and flash cards and learn colors and all that. We are out and about learning this stuff. You can tell she likes to learn. As long as she is doing that I'm going to follow her lead. I think a good start now will help her enjoy learning as she gets older. She loves to say her colors. It's funny how she can get a color wrong, but the word she says is still a color. She knows pink, purple, green, yellow, blue, and red. I've never really heard her say red very well. I don't know why she may have a problem saying that.

I also found out that she can count pretty good. We went to Garrette's baseball game Sat morning. Sierra was there talking to Linda. Linda was eating raisins. Sierra said you can only have one raisin. Linda said "two three." I count to her quite a bit too. She has said "ten" after the number nine for about 3 months now at least. But now she recognizes other numbers.

She learned some new animals tonight too. Tom was reading her a book. There was a toucan, seal, fox, and wolf (among many other animals, but she knows most of the other ones). She pointed to each of the animals and said their names. When she said wolf, she tilted her head back and howled. Tom said it was so funny. I taught her when she does coyote or wolf sound to tilt her head back. Too cute. When we read books now we point to the object and ask her what it is. When she was 11 months old she was pointing correctly at all the animals in her books. We would say Linda where is the elephant or whatever animal and she would point to it. She would do the sign for it too if she knew it. (She is still signing, but not as much since she has a huge vocab. I really should keep up w/it. She would p/u new signs so fast.) We since have gotten more books for her, w/harder animals. The "standard" animals just weren't challenging her anymore. She knows all her animal sounds.

She still LOVES music. She loves to sit at the piano and pound on the keys. I hope she continues to enjoy it. I really want her to take piano. She will dance at any time any where. It is so funny. She even tries to dance when she hears music while nursing. For mother's day Tom bought me portable speakers for my iPod. That is the best gift. I have loads of children's music on there. When we are outside I can use it. I even take it to the park when we go (almost everyday). She stands at the park dancing. People think it is so cute.

I hope everyone had a good weekend. I know we sure did.

A Day in the Sun

We went to playgroup at Jamie's house today. Their yard is very nice. They have an inground pool. Their grassy area is somewhat shaded, which is very nice in the heat. Linda got in the pool a little bit. The water was quite chilly. I think we are making progress.

After her nap, we went to Redwing park. Mary was supposed to meet us there, but wasn't able to. Linda likes this park. I like the trees around to provide shade, especially since I try to avoid sunscreen.

The attitude we checked at 8-9 months has returned full force. When she gets upset, her arms flail all over the place. Today she had a full blown tantrum. She was in the swing and wanted to get down. Another mom had asked me to watch her son real quick. I didn't want Linda down so it would be easier to watch them both. Linda said down please. When I told her to wait she freeked. Her arms and legs went all over, and she was screaming. I turned my back on her and waited until she stopped. There was no way in hell she was getting down while doing that. I told Tom Linda has the wrong mommy if she thinks I'll give in to a tantrum. It's not happening. After she was done (45 seconds or so), I went back over to her and had her say "mama, I'm sorry I had a tantrum. Please forgive me. Please let me down." I don't think she understood all of that, but she will eventually learn that she needs to apologize and mean it when her behavior is unacceptable. She started w/a tantrum tonight when I was reading her books also. We were reading an alphabet book. We were on Q. She was done w/the book. I'm a big "once you start something you finish it" person. So I told her we needed to finish the book, but I would hurry. Apparently that was not acceptable to her. She threw herself and her arms and started whining. I picked her up, firmly put her on the floor, said no ma'am and walked out. You would have thought her world ended. She is still in the phase of wanting mommy around all the time. So if I leave her like that she hates it. It is very effective. She got the message. When she stopped crying I went back to her and we started up w/the book again. Wouldn't you know it, she sat very nice for the rest of book time. I'm hoping these are learning experiences. I know she is learning, and testing, and seeing what she can get away with. I'm just worn out by all the attitude. I will stay strong though.

Time for bed. You know you are a parent when it's a Fri night 9:30 and it's time for bed. Ha.