...all the little things

So here are some random little things that Kylie has done recently...you know, all the things that make her so Amazing and sweet!


Words

We are always labeling things and trying to expand Kylie's vocabulary, but she responds so much better to our neighbor. Of course everyone is more fun and exciting than mom and dad, right :) At any rate, it is so cute to see how excited Kylie gets when we are over there to visit and J is communicating with Kylie. Kylie thinks J is being silly, so she laughs and gets all excited and squealy when she tries to imitate the words or sounds that J is doing. With J's help, she has learned to say happy (more like "hap-eye...and she almost always whispers it), and cat (she just does the "ttt" sound).

Kylie has also learned a few more words in the past couple of weeks:

help (hap)
play (bay or way)
towel (dowel)
please (we try to get her to do the "puh" sound, but she does "buh" and laughs each time she does it)
water (wah)
hat (huh--at)
home (haw-mm or ome)
waffle (wah)
headband (ha-ba)


Social


Also the recent times we have been over visiting the neighbors, Kylie let J pick her up and hold her while they were playing together! She is so big, and just doing so well...makes me teary. The cutest part was when J tried to put her down, and Kylie kept her legs up and wrapped around her like a little monkey...she liked J holding her :) Oh and she gave J and her fiance Z high fives, and hugs, and even tried to give them kisses. A-mazing!

Yesterday I took Kylie to story time at Barnes and Noble and we met some friends there. Kylie was so cute, she let Monica help her up on the bench where she sat next to another little girl. Oh, it was such a mommy moment for me to see her sitting there! Of course no camera with me, but I did get a new phone yesterday afternoon, and it takes much better pics than my old one..so I will be ready to snap some pics!

We have been to story time a couple times there before, and also to visit their children's book section. We have seriously only been in that area like 3 times, and Kylie remembered that there were Elmo and other Sesame Street books on the other side of the little stage where they read stories. She navigated around the kids and chairs to go get some Elmo books. Of course she was proud when she brought them back and signed more and said "mo" and went and got more and more. She even let Monica pick her up a couple times too!

After story time we went down to the play area in the mall, and Kylie ran around there a bit. It was so nice because there were more kids there her age, and not too many kids...it seems to overwhelm her at times when there are lots. Heck, it overwhelms me too, because I don't want her getting run over or too stressed. Anyway, the story of it all is that there was a little girl there that was probably a year old or just over that. The little girl was fascinated watching Kylie run around and play. Kylie picked up on that and walked over to the little girl and they stared at each other for a bit. Kylie would then run to do something and then go back to the little girl...I think she was trying to show the girl how to play and she just didn't have the words to say "come play with me."

The cutest part is that Kylie put her arms out and walked toward the girl and when she got close enough to touching her she looked at me as if to say "okay, how do I do this...how do I give her a hug." So sweet that she was trying to hug a little person. I told her all done and did the sign for it, because I didn't want her to upset the little girl, but I so wanted to let her just do it and see how she responded to giving another person, a new person a hug on her own. Next time.



More communication

Yesterday Kylie and I were watching one of her Signing Time dvds and she did a two-step sign! A lot of signs are just using 1 or both hands and doing the appropriate gesture with them, but this one was two separate signs that you do in order for "clear the table." You sign "table" and then "clean-up." This is the first time she has ever done this, so it was a BIG little moment for Kylie!

We have cut back on how often she watches the Signing Time dvds, and try to redirect her when she continually communicates to us that she wants to watch them. I think she has a crush on the little guy Alex that is on the shows. It also seems like so many of her words come from watching them. She sees the object in the house and signs it and is now trying to put the word to it. It is just great to see that one mom's creation is helping so many kids communicate!