Thank You and Days of the Week

I heard the sweetest sound today (besides Linda saying "I love you.") We just got home and I was taking Linda out of the car seat. She said, as normal, out please. I took her out and put her down and she looked up at me and said thank you. I was so excited. This is the first time she has said it w/o prompting. It was so sweet.

I have been trying to come up w/new things to teach Linda while she finishes up learning to recognize letters (she knows over 1/2) and numbers (she only knows 1 and 8, we need to work on that). So I started telling her the days of the week. I had been telling her on our walk in the morning. A few days ago, I asked her to tell me what the days of the week are. Before I would just tell her. I had been telling her for about a week. After I asked her she said "monday tuesday." I helped her w/the rest. Then Tom and I were having breakfast w/Linda. Tom asked when our friends were getting home from their trip. I said I think they get back on Monday. W/o skipping a beat, Linda said "tuesday". It is amazing that they are listening to everything you say.

She has started counting objects. It started w/her fingers. And now she will count other things too. I've been encouraging this obviously. It is so cute when she counts her fingers. She also will bust out w/her ABCs for no apparant reason. I just can't believe how smart she is, and how fast she understands. She seems to understand everything I tell her. If I tell her to do something, she will do it. She really is amazing.

It's been a while!

I can't believe it's been about a month since I posted. Linda has been very busy in the last month. We took a visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We spent time w/Aunt Debbie, Aunt Kelly, Uncle Tim, Morgan and Collin. Linda loved Collin and Morgan. They all played so good together. We got home and she was asking for Collin for days!

Linda likes to "ride cock horse." The is putting her at the end of your leg and bouncing her up and down to a tune. The other day she went up to Copper (the dog) and said, "ride cock horse." She then attempted to climb on him. It was too funny.

She is really enjoying the pool now. She asks to go in it all the time now. I'm glad b/c she was so timid about it in the beginning of the season. The water has been so warm, so I think that helps too.

Linda seems to have had another language explosion. She is using quite a few two and three word sentences now. Before she would use a sentence once in a while, but now it is frequent. Today she brought a book to me and said "read the book please." She finally called a pineapple the right name. Before it was always just apple.

It is amazing how her mind works. The fact that she talks so good is amazing, but her understanding of concepts is even more amazing. She was in the car today and I hear her saying, "up, down, up, down." I look back and she is pushing her self up and then letting her self down. She understands both words, and knows they are related to each other. Pretty amazing for a 16 month old. She also knows off/on, in/out, hot/cold, open/closed.

I'm going to try to post every day or so again. It's hard to get back in the habit.

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!