August 2000
Sophie's achievements in August:
words: whoa, uh oh, bye bye, hooray, ruff ruff (dog bark), moo (cow), up,
down;
skills: walking confidently while holding one hand; stands unsupported; can
stand up by herself without pulling up; can put shapes into matching slots but
requires lots of help
misc: blows puff puff to signify "hot", fills in blanks in some of her stories
(moo, baa, la la la); plays along with "if you're happy and you know it clap
your hands ..." - claps, shakes legs and shouts "hooray"; takes
down brushes & combs from shelf and mimics brushing her hair; follows older
children around; fairly confident in water - crawls around or lets us
"swim" her horizontally
ASL (American Sign Language): more; eat, milk
Rocks her doll singing "aaah aaah baby".
After throwing food or anything down on the floor, says "uh, oh!
bye bye."
Smacks her lips to indicate kissing (previously she said mmmmm instead).
8/28: Stood up, took a step, stopped, took another step, stopped, then stood
for a while.
Judy did leg lifts and upon reaching 10, Sophie clapped, because one of her
Music Together fingerplays involves counting the fingers to 10 and then
clapping.
8/29: Picks up telephone and says "allo". Sometimes says "goodbye" or "hanging up".
September 2000--
Sophie now says, "All done," "up, down", "hurray" and "way cool", "high five," "ma-ne" (magnet) "poopy," "oh, no," "night-night" and quite a few other useful expressions. Imitates us all the time. She also identifies computer, shoes, feet, clown, and a bunch of other stuff. "Bye-bye" and "No-No" are still big favorites, though now she says "hi". Animal sounds are big still: woof-woof, moo, baa, nay, meow. She still does raspberries when imitating a frog, which always cracks us up. She says "mommy" and "daddy" all the time, but sometimes mixes up whom she's addressing. We like to say, "Who do you mean, mommy with the boobs, or mommy with the mustache?"
Skills: (9/19) is walking pretty confidently by herself, but still prefers to hold hands. She likes to rub noses (eskimo kiss) and can now identify many of the objects in her books when prompted. She's starting to move the mouse in one of her computer games and understand the connection between the mouse and the cursor on the screen. Reading is still really high on her list--there are some books that she wants to hear over and over, then look at them by herself and babble and point. She also enjoys playing in the kitchen with pots and pans, and her latest trick is to open one of the kitchen drawers (see picture below), climb into it, dump everything out of it, stand up, open the drawers above it and play with the utensils within, dumping them out onto the floor or just playing with them in the bottom drawer. Of course, this is where we keep Cuisinart blades and other contraband, so we've had to quickly adjust to this new form of entertainment. (Which means that we've moved the dangerous stuff elsewhere, and Noel is getting ready to install locks on the drawers.) She is learning how to draw with colored chalk, both on paper and on the cement patio outside.
With all the activity during the day, she is actually starting to take pretty regular naps, just like "a real baby." She still likes to "hang with the folks," meaning, not go to bed until we do. She enjoys watching football and Olympic gymnastics. She enjoys yoga--she woke up once, stretched, got on all fours, did a cat stretch, then a perfect downward dog. Amazing, since we don't practice yoga much at home. Babies just must get it naturally!!!
ASL signs for nursing, more, eat, and all done. Sophie and Judy are going to weekly BabyFingers (ASL+music) classes in NYC, and will be starting (hopefully) ASL classes in Garrison and Music Together classes in Croton. In August and September Sophie accompanied us to a Swedish fiddle workshop led by Bruce Sagan and to an Albany gathering of some folk dance and music. We also went to a dinner/dance/concert at Breezy Hill Orchard and to the first Hungarian táncház of the season.
We celebrated our second anniversary on September 13 with a picnic at Senasqua Lake in Croton.
making music with friends near Albany / "Why can't I play,
too?" with Noel during
the fiddle workshop
making mischief in the kitchen drawer / holding candles with Fran at the
Kolevi concert,
just in case of a power outage
hanging out on mom & dad's bed / Look who's walking now!!!
pausing twice for a drink and a bite during a hike in Garrison
