What did you say?!?
It’s been a busy learning month for both Allison and Katherine. Allison is starting to use sounds to form words – “ish” and “ada” and now “dada!”
“Ish” indeed refers to “fish” – a plastic fish that she loves to chew on in the tub. And, “dada” seems to refer to both me and Steve. The former came about last week as Patty was giving Katherine a bath. She handed Allison a plastic fish to chew on and repeated “fish” several times. To her and Katherine’s astonishment, Allison started saying “ish” softly and then more loudly. At first, I thought this was a case of Allison learning a sound and practicing it. But…several days ago she saw and started to reach for the fish on the bath counter while saying “ish.”
“dada” came about two days ago. I had been practicing with Allison after hearing “adat” or “adad.” According to a book I’ve been reading (scientist in the crib), first words often consist of “dada,” “mama,” and “tata” (Katherine’s former nickname!). After about a day of me saying “adad, adada, dada,” Allison is now practicing this word. She decided to practice this morning as a matter of fact…at 5AM…while I was changing her diaper! My response was, “Allison: can you please learn how to say mama?”
Katherine is becoming a skilled negotiator. Today she informed me that she hadn’t watched TV or any movies in the morning with Dad, so could I please turn on Elmo in the minivan? She also picks up and uses words without fully realizing their meaning. She told Paulette today, “can I please have some attention?” When Patty asked her if she knew what that meant, she admitted that she didn’t, but she wanted it!
Moving, Moving, Moving
Allison has been rolling around for some time now. The last several days she’s been crawling – backwards, sideways and almost forwards. The motion resembles that of an inchworm. She lifts her backside and legs, positions them underneath her body and pushes with unpredictable direction. When I put my hand behind her feet, she pushes forward. I expect that she’ll be crawling within a couple weeks. Walking will soon follow, since she can now stand and hold onto tables for fairly long periods of time.
Growing
Allison and I took Katherine to her 3 year checkup last Thursday. Funny enough we got to the checkup room and I placed Allison on the checkup table. Her face crumpled and she began to cry – thinking that she was going to be stripped, measured and prodded!
Katherine was very stoic – no crying during her Hep A shot. She also weighed in at 30.2 lbs (50%) and 36.75 inches (50%). This is consistent with past measurements where she’s tended to be 50-75% height and 25% weight.
Allison is FINALLY filling out. We’ve been feeding her organic oatmeal, pears, vegetables this past week three times a day. She ate extremely well today, wolfing down a big portion of cereal and all the vegetables that Patty and I offered her. One key learning is that Allison is a “self-feeder.” Once she starts to fill up, she grabs the spoon and directs it towards her mouth. Good thing we have a washable, nylon cover on the high chair.
I’ll post more pictures later this week.