Belle Update

As promised to the Grandmas.... here is a little update about all the little things Belle has been doing, I am sure I am skipping a bunch, but this gives you an idea about what Belle is accomplishing these days. We're looking forward to her second birthday next month.

Our little toddler is cracking us up all the time and cracking herself up too. The other day, she was curled up on the sofa with a small blanket over her lap and Pupa, Bo and Baby all laying with her, when she started lifting up her blanket over her head and laughing. I asked her "what was under there?", and she looked right up at me and said as loud as she could, "toes!" - like she was surprised or something. And who would have thought toes were so funny. She thought it was hilarious, and after her reaction, I couldn't help be laugh right along with her.

She loves to play with her puppies and babies. She often wraps them up in dishtowels (as blankets) and lays them out for night-night. She cooks in her play kitchen, while I cook in the kitchen, but has become way more interested in the "real thing" and often ends up next to me -- helping.

I don't know what happened over this past week, but she is talking in more mini-sentences. She consistently says Dada work car, no pretty (when she doesn't want to wear something I have picked out for her), more please Mama, thank you, I love you Mama/Dada. She mimics anything and everything but also has a lot of spontaneous conversation about whatever is relevant to her surroundings. It is fun to see her start putting it all together.

Since we're in Spanish class we're getting a bit of a mix between words, which is good, she's learning both. She often asks for agua (water) and at bath time she says "adios agua" when the water runs out. She counts a bit in Spanish, "uno" and "dos."

She's getting better at her colors, and her favorite is red. She is really into the colors right now because she loves art. I don't know what it is, but she will sit at her table and color or do an art project for hours. She loves to have her hand traced and use stencils to trace on paper.

In the last 6 months, she gotten into books. She has her favorites and will read them aloud for you. She knows some of them by name and is very particular about which books she wants to read and in what order. For instance, Good Night Moon really is the last book, if she chooses that book. She loves Moo, Baa, LaLaLa (she calls it LaLaLa); The Monster at the End of the Book (she thinks Grover is Elmo); Snuggle Puppy; The Lady with the Alligator Purse; all of these Nursery Rhyme books, like Row Row Row Your Boat (I think she likes the singing), and of course her favorite bath book, Bath Time (she calls it "Hey, Hey" after the opening line), which she has memorized, since we read it about 20 times a night.

She can sing the ABC song with the correct tune, but the enunciation isn't quite there yet. She gets to about C, and then says something completely incoherent, and back to understandable again at Q, and then who knows after that. She loves the song Itsy Bitsy Spider. She's ok with the words, but much better with the actions. She also likes Twinkle Twinkle and The Wheels on the Bus.

She pretty much knows all of her body parts (except that her elbow is referred to as her Elmo) and most animal noises -- at least all the animals I can think of. My favorite is donkey - "HeHa" It's really funny -- I need to get that on video.

She loves a stage and uses place mats and cutting boards regularly to perform her singing routines.

She dances with Yo Gabba Gabba and will ask for her show by name... literally she'll ask about a thousand times until you can't watch anything yourself anyway, so you might as well just turn it on. She loves that show. She's into Dora the Explorer and Elmo too, but not like she loves her Yo Gabba Gabba.

Last week at gymnastics she jumped all the way down the trampoline and then got to the end, stood up straight and said "tada" while putting her arms in the air. It was so cute, and I made her do it about 10 more times during class.

Also, if you ask Belle to "make a funny face" she tries and it is really funny to watch her try to make a face, usually involving squeezing her cheeks and sticking out her tongue.

Ok, I think that's about all I can think of today, I hope you enjoy reading about all the new things Belle has been up too.