Scared Sign, Telling Me to Sit, Identifies Orange

Last night, Heidi slept all night without waking up... or at least without waking me up! Sometimes she does wake up in the middle of the night. I hear her turn on her musical bird thing or her butterfly that plays music (both are on the side of her crib). Then, she usually just goes back to sleep. Last night, I put her to bed at about 8pm and she slept until about 8am. It was so nice to have a night of uninterrupted sleep!

Lately, whenever she says "toes," she doesn't just say "toes." Instead, she usually calls them "wee wee toes," like from the This Little Piggy toe game.

Heidi has been telling me to come sit next to her on the couch sometimes lately... especially if she is watching a movie and she wants to cuddle and/or have some milk. She tells me "a-sit... a-sit" and pats the place next to her on the couch.

Oh, she also does the "scared" sign now. We learned that one from watching a Signing Time dvd. Also, we were watching The Little Mermaid the other day and when the shark was chasing after Ariel and the fish, I kept telling Heidi that it was scary... and did the scared sign (she copied me, usually only uses one hand to do it instead of two, though). Then, later when we were looking at a book about fish... I did the scared sign and was telling her that the sharks and whales were scary (she copied me again doing the sign with just one hand). When we went to run the car through the carwash yesterday evening, Heidi was scared of the shooting water and all of the equipment in the carwash. I could tell by her facial expression and her body language (she was kind of turning to the side and making a scared face). When I asked her if she was scared of the water, she showed me the scared sign. Today before nap time, we were looking at a few books, as we usually do. One of the books I had picked out was a book about frogs. They were real frogs, not cartoon frogs. There were big frogs, little frogs, pond frogs, tree frogs, hopping frogs, etc. Well, I don't think she liked this book. She kept trying to close the book and not look at the pages. She also gave me the scared sign. I guess frogs scare her!

We watched Frosty the Snowman today (Heidi's choice). There is a little girl named Karen in the cartoon that cries a couple of times. When Karen started crying one time in the movie, I said "She's sad." I have been trying to show Heidi when I am sad by fake crying lately.... like if she does something that might hurt my feelings (ie- tear down my block tower or refuse to give me a kiss). Well, the next time Karen started crying in the cartoon, I really think Heidi said "She's sad" or "She sad." I asked her to say that again... and she said it again. I am pretty sure that is what she was saying. I was a little surprised that she had picked that up so quickly.

Also, yesterday while we were watching The Little Mermaid, the evil sea witch was singing a song (I think it was around the time she took Ariel's voice away) and in part of the song she was singing something about a "poor unfortunate sooooouuul." Heidi starting singing with her... and was singing "sooouuul" with the sea witch.

Yesterday, I saw Heidi sitting on the couch pretending to feed her baby doll. I am not sure if I asked her what she was doing, but she told me "Baby said milk." I am pretty sure she said those words. I was shocked at that too. It is really hard to believe, I think, that an almost 18-month-old can be picking up So Much! Everyday I am amazed at what she is learning.

The other day, Heidi learned to correctly identify the color black. Now, she also can identify the color orange too! When we were drawing/coloring today, I was telling her each color name and drawing a picture with each color and then asked her which color was orange. She picked the correct one. Then I asked her a couple of times later, and she got it right again. Then, when I put her pajamas on her... I asked her what color was on her pajamas. There is a lot of orange and an orange strip down the front that I was pointing to. She said orange... so I think I can say that she is correctly identifying the color orange now too.

Here's a list of even more words I have noticed her saying now:

zebra (szeeper)
snowman (no-man or mo-man)
cow
seal
girl (gir)
orange (ongzh or onzses)
bread (has been saying this for a long time)
mermaid (manand)
slide (side)
paper (pee-poo or pa-poo)
yucky
oh yucky
sit
bug

I guess looking back at this blog entry, It looks like we watch a lot of tv/movies. I don't think it is really that bad to watch SOME tv. I think she is learning some things from watching the shows that we watch. We talk about things that are going on in the shows (I guess I talk about what's going on), but I think she is learning from some of what we talk about. She has learned how to sign "scared" (along with other signs)... learning about animals... learning about emotions/feelings... and is learning more about language.

Heidi Knows Black & Cooking Sign Now

Our day started off today at 5:05am. Heidi woke up and didn't want to go back to sleep, even though it was still dark outside. I put her in bed with me, turned the tv on, and let her play with her babies while I tried to rest a few more minutes, but that didn't last for very long.

Brian sent me an email a couple of days ago saying that he was going down to Kuwait. Now, I guess he is waiting for a flight home from there. I hope he doesn't have to wait too long for a flight. Maybe he will be home tomorrow or the next day. I have been keeping my cell phone with me at all times in case he calls to tell me he is in Dallas... and is about to fly into Killeen. Then, Heidi and I can go pick him up and have him back for a little while.

I cut the grass today (front and back). Heidi was actually pretty good while I was working on the yard today. I brought out her sit-n-spin, her popcorn popper toy, her sippy cup, and a little school bell for her to play with. Sometimes, she follows me around while I am cutting the grass. Sometimes, she will play with her toys. A couple of times, I had to move her away because she was wanting to touch the lawn mover while I was using it.

Tomorrow, we are going to go to the PX to get Brian some gummi candies... just to have something special that he likes for him when he gets in. They have the cola gummis, the frog gummis, the vitamin gummis, and the licorice ones that he likes. Oh, today we also went to the commissary to get some things for him that he likes... that I just haven't been buying since he left, like: diet cream soda, grape soda, chips and salsa, peanuts, cottage cheese, the cheese that they have in star and moon shapes (easy for putting on crackers), and orange juice.

Also, whenever Heidi sees me cooking now, she says "cook" and does the sign for cooking. When she plays with her play pots and pans, she calls her pots and pans "cook" .... or maybe she is telling me that she is going to cook too, not sure.

Today, Heidi kept saying "colors... colors... colors" to me, when I finally figured out what she was wanting. She wanted her Crayons! After I got her crayons out, I was drawing on some computer paper with her. I drew a red heart, an orange circle, a green triangle, a yellow square, a black diamond, and a blue cloud. I pointed to each color and told her the name of the color and the shape. I have never told her the name for black before (or at least I don't remember telling her). After I told her the names, I asked her to find the color yellow... and she found the right color. Then, I asked her to find black, and she found it and said "black!" She had some trouble with the other colors. I guess the other colors are usually all yellow to her. I asked her a couple of times later to find black for me, and she did, so I think she knows the color black now. I guess because it is so dark and a little different.

Heidi's vocabulary continues to grow everyday. Here are a few more words I have noticed her using:

door
cook (and also does the sign for cooking)*
stars
moon
colors
black
lemon (sounds more like "lem"... and then she usually says "yummy yummy")
keys (has been saying this for a long time, just haven't added it to any lists)
rainbow (has been saying this for a while)
king (there is a king in a book that we have been looking at)

*Oh, and the word "strawberries" has definitely changed from "stubbies" to "staw-bies" now. She wants to go outside and pick strawberries every day! Today, we didn't pick any. I told her we needed to wait. I want to make sure there are several good ones for when Brian gets home, so they can go out and pick them together.

Garage Sale Day

Our day started off at 5:15 am, when Heidi woke up crying and didn't want to go back to sleep.

On post today, Wainwright Heights (our neighborhood) and Patton Park were having neighborhood garage sales, so we went. We left at about 8am. When I was getting ready to put Heidi in her car seat, I remembered that I had left her sippy cup in the kitchen, so I ran back in to get it really quick. When I came back out to the car, Heidi was in the driver's seat playing like she was driving the car. She looked so happy to be up there in the driver's seat! She still has about 15 years before she can do that yet.

It was sooo humid while we were out today. It was probably only in the 80's, but we were sweating a lot while we were out this morning because it was So Humid. I'm not looking forward to the summer, when it will be hot (and get into the 100's) and humid.

While going to garage sales, we got: a Huge trash bag full of toddler-size legos, about 6 books, a Little Tikes cube slide, and a little telephone that Heidi has been having fun playing with since I gave it to her in the car. It has a little phone book with animals on each page. She likes turning the pages and naming the animals (horse, cat, pig, cat, etc). When you pick up the phone, a voice says hello... and when you hang it up, it says good-bye. A voice also says the numbers when you press on them. Heidi repeats the numbers sometimes after she hears the phone say the number name. I think the phone was a good purchase... and it was only 50 cents!!!

I talked to Brian again today on the internet. I guess he is about ready to come home. While I was talking to him, a FedEx truck came to the house and dropped off two 19" computer monitors!!! We have two older computer monitors that are maybe 13" (not sure). That was a surprise! We have a few other packages here that Brian has had sent to the house. We will wait until he gets here to open them up. I think one or two of them are for my birthday/Mother's Day, which is next Sunday. He should be here for my birthday. YAY!

I would like to get a surprise or two for him too, but I have no idea of what to get him and don't want to waste money on something he won't want.

I want to get a rubbermaid plastic container to store the legos. We went to Wal-mart, the PX, and then to Target tonight looking for one, but I can't find the one that I want. I want the kind with the flaps on top, so I won't have to worry about a lid. I also think it would be nice because Heidi could open and close it herself... and maybe even put the legos away into the container all by herself. I did get a couple of smaller containers today, though, that were the rubbermaid brand with the flaps that open.

I think Heidi needs a bookshelf for her room. She has so many books now, but no book shelf. I saw a couple when I was at IKEA that I thought would be okay. I think Brian thinks we need to get something that is a little better quality though. We talked about her needing a bookshelf today.

Lately, she has been wanting to look at a color book that we have and name all of the pictures before she goes down for a nap or down to sleep at night. She has fun naming things like the pumpkin, the leaves, the truck, the bird, the rainbow, etc. She doesn't really identify colors yet.

Washing Off Her Tongue

Tonight when Heidi was in the bathtub, I asked her to wash off her face with her washcloth. She did, but didn't get her mouth area very well, which was pretty messy, so I told her to wash off her mouth. She took her washcloth and wiped off her tongue. I thought it was pretty cute. I guess her tongue is part of her mouth.

Also, today when I was getting clothes out of the laundry cupboard in the bathroom, I noticed two pair of Heidi's shoes were mixed in with the clothes. I thought maybe I had accidentally thrown them in there with her clothes when I was cleaning up after one of her baths or something. Tonight, when I took her clothes off to put her in the bath, I saw her go put her clothes in the door/flap to the dirty clothes cupboard. Not only did she put her dress in there that she wore today, she also put her little pink shoes in! I guess that's how her two pairs of shoes ended up in there. It is nice that she is trying to help keep things picked up!

Heidi has been doing the "be right back" sign that I kind of made up on my own and saying "back" a lot lately. Instead of waving bye with your whole hand, you just wave bye with one finger and say I'll "be right back." Heidi tells me "back... back" and does the sign whenever she is leaving me to go get a book... or to go down the hallway... or to go into her bedroom to get another toy out... etc. She has just been using it a LOT the last few days. It is really cute when she does it. I didn't know what the real sign for this was, so I just made one up a while back... and she picked it up.

We've been going outside every evening and picking strawberries. Yesterday, we picked 8 (I had one and she had the rest). Today, we picked 6. Every day, more are ripe... and every day, it looks like the birds have eaten more of them too. A couple of them have gotten Pretty Big! Most of them are usually a little smaller than the ones you normally see in the grocery store. We don't use any kind of miracle grow products or chemicals. They are bigger this year than they were last year. Maybe the older the plants are, the bigger the fruit they produce... I don't know.

I have been talking to Brian just about every day on the computer. I usually see him online in yahoo messenger sometime afternoon (before he goes to sleep)... and then at night after 9pm or so (when he is just waking up). It is nice that he has the internet in his room this time, so we can talk a lot more often than the last time he deployed. I think we will probably be getting a new tv when he gets home. He has been shopping and comparing prices online a lot lately. I guess we are going to get a 37 inch one. That is as big as our entertainment center will fit.

Every day, I notice Heidi using more words. Here are some of the newer ones that I have noticed her saying:

truck (tuk)
orange (orses)
rabbit (rabbese)
pants (pats)
jeans (deens)
clothes (cose)
dress (I think she says "dess")
bread
egg
sit
pig
cat
bee (can also make the buzzing sound)
sheep (she used to only saw "baaa" when she saw a sheep)
home (says it and does the sign)
house
ham (she's been saying this for a long time.... says haaaaam and hom)
medicine (men) (she was recently on antibiotics for 10 days)
towel
stars (can't remember how she says it)
moon
bowl (has been saying this for a long while)
strawberries (stubbies or staw-bies)
Diaper (used to say duppa)(now says dupper)
"be right back" (says "back" and does the sign)

I am sure there are some others that I just can't think of right now.

Also says some color names (like yellow "ye-yo," red "re," blue "boo," but is not correctly identifying them yet). If you ask her what color something is, she will usually say "yellow."

Also says some letter names, like: A, E, M, B. Can sometimes point to the right letter when I ask her to on the fridge (I only have these letters on the fridge) but often doesn't pick the right one. She can pretty much say most of the letters if you ask her to repeat you.

"Stubbies"

This afternoon, I had a volunteer luncheon to go to. I got another volunteer award for being involved with the Family Readiness Group (I'm the leader for Brian's company). They had free child care provided, so Heidi was able to go play with some other kids around her age while I was at the luncheon. She looked like she was having fun when I went back in to pick her up.

As soon as we got home and got out of the car, Heidi kept saying "Stubbies... Stubbies." Then as soon as I set her down, she ran over to our flower box in the front of the house where most of our strawberry plants are. She picked a few more strawberries and we went in to wash them off so she could eat them. She really enjoys her strawberries!

Oh, she is getting better at saying broccoli now... it used to sound more like "bra-bee," but now it sounds more like "brok-lee."

Tonight, when I was getting ready to put her into bed, she had a little dinosaur in her hand and she said "dinosaur" pretty clearly. It seems like just about everyday now, she says another new word.

Heidi's Strawberries

Last spring, Brian planted a bunch of strawberry plants in our front and back yard (also some raspberry and blueberry plants). Right now, these plants have some really ripe, bright red strawberries that are ready to be picked.

Today, when Heidi and I were out in the front yard, she was over by the flower box with the strawberry plants pointing down at them saying "strawberries." Then, she bent down and picked one from one of the plants. I told her that we needed to go inside and wash it off before she could eat it, so we did that... and when she put this strawberry in her mouth, her eyes and her face just lit up with the Biggest Smile! I know that she really likes strawberries, but I think she was even more excited to be eating one that SHE picked from a REAL plant! I guess this was a good science lesson for her too, so she knows that they come from plants... not just the refridgerator.

I think we need to put a fake crow out there or something to keep the birds away. I saw where a bird had eaten two of the strawberries.

As soon as she finished eating her strawberry, she rushed back outside to get another one. I found two other really ripes ones for her to eat (not all of them are ready to be picked yet). Her face lit up when she ate the second two strawberries too!