October catch-up . . . 22 months old!

After hearing that one devoted reader was tired of looking at pictures of burp cloths, I am finally giving you a bit of an update!  These past weeks have been full!  We've spent one week in New York with our families and two weeks in Europe (surprise, surprise!).  There's so much to share . . . we'll see if it all happens!  Isn't it funny how the more there is to write about, the less time there is to write it? 

Well.  Here is our darling 22-month-old:

Looking back at October pictures of her from a year ago, it is hard for me to believe how much she has changed . . . and I'm very, very happy to say that she now takes one 2-3 hour nap a day, instead of one 30 minute nap a day, as that old post proclaimed! 

I've been trying to scribble down all the new things Gemma does, but I'm sure I've missed some of them.  Most notably, she is saying many new words!  In addition to "hi," "bye," "Mommy," "Daddy," "eye," and "ball," she is also saying "on," "off," "up," "uh oh," "eaty" (eat), "hopa" (either "hot dog" or "hop on pop," depending on the context), "yah" (yes), "yay!" (i.e. "hooray!) "bee bee" ("beep" for car), "knee," "Amen," "happy," and "baby" in context.  She also does some animal noises:  "ba ba" (sheep), "rah" (lion), "sss" (snake), "tee tee tee!" (very high-pitched, for birds), and "rah rah" (dog . . . yes, just a little different from her lion sound!). 

She's also started to recognize a few letters! "O" and "M" are her favorites.  She points them out in books and says "Ooooh!" or "Mmmm!"  But she also recognizes "A" and "X" and even today seemed to be adding a few more to her repetoire, like "D."  I'm pretty excited about "O" and "M," though, because she makes the sounds for them.  And, yes, it probably has something to do with the leap frog fridge phonics thing that Grammy found for her at a garage sale . . . technology for the win, as much as I hate to admit it!

 

 

Gemma loves playing outside.  She loves helping to water the rose bush and handing me clothes pins or putting them back in the basket when I hand them to her.  She loves throwing her diaper in the trash (we've been using disposables about half the time lately, because she's been pretty rashy and needs the high-powered diaper cream.  At least she's never constipated . . . )  She can get into and out of the bumbo by herself and we've started bringing her into church a bit.  She's added "shoulder" and "cheek" to her knowledge of anatomy.  She likes to tickle toes, including her own! and making a little "digga digga digga!" sound effect, which is just darling.  :)  She gives great hugs and kisses with sound effects ("nah!").  And she does seem to have some understanding that there is a baby in Mommy's tummy.  I thought she was clueless until we were around a real 8 month old, and she pointed to the baby and then pointed to my belly!  Of course, she then pointed to her belly as well, but I was nonetheless encouraged! 

 

Her baby doll is still probably her favorite toy, and reading books is also at the top of the list!  She also loves the head band in the top picture, which we brought home from a Euro shop in Florence.  And most of all, she loves her blanket . . .