Growth

Reese is at a point where she is having noticeable growth on a daily basis, regarding her understanding, cognition and communication.

Saturday we were outside playing in the driveway and with every car that drove by Reese would wave to them and say "Hi". Tom had told me that that she was doing it on Thursday but before I saw it with my own eyes, I thought he was exaggerating. But no, clear as day, and time after time, she did it. Saturday night we were standing in the garage, in the dark with my parents, watching people leave in the pouring rain and my dad says. "It almost looks like she is waving when people leave." and I told him that was exactly what she was doing. He was shocked. Then she did it again.

We also have been signing "all done" and "more" to her since she started eating solids. Over the weekend she started doing "all done" with one hand, when she was done eating. It looks a heck of a lot like her wave, so it was a little confusing at first, but she is doing it at the appropriate times. At the end of dinner and when she is done with her bath and starts trying to reach for me and crawl out.

Then tonight we were outside and I asked (but did not sign), if she wanted more squeezy food and she clearly signed more! She does one hand with just a pointer finger, the rest with her fingers all together like she is supposed to but it was very good and clear in her intent. Then when we were reading a book tonight before bed, we turned the page and she saw a picture of milk so I said "Milk", and then she signed "more", stood up, walked away toward the kitchen and signed "more" again.  Then I asked her if she wanted milk and she did her dramatic head nod thing again. She is really starting to communicate (even though she isn't saying much) and it is so fun!

A couple weeks ago she started pointing at things in her books when we would read to her. It is more like a repeated finger stab then a nice gentle point, but she gets her point across. (no pun intended).

And the latest thing she surprised me with tonight, was that we were reading one of her favorite books (a touch and feel board book that my grandparents gave her for Christmas), and we got to the page where it says "mouth" and "nose" and I usually always point to the kid's in the book, and then hers and before I could point to hers when I said "nose" she pointed to her nose! I thought it was just a fluke so we continued on, but then I went back to that page and once again as soon as I said nose, she put her finger right on her nose (and up it once for good measure). I tested her about 5 more times, then called Tom in and sure enough she did it for him right away. Genius baby.

These pictures were from Donovan's birthday when Reese was playing with us by squinting, and shutting her eyes, then opening them up, and then shutting them again (she was peeking at us through the slits in her eyes the whole time though). My sister and I would do it, then she would do it right back to us. The pics don't do it justice but the fact that she is learning how to mimic and interact/play is so fun.

 Not a great view but you can kinda see her squinted eyes almost shut.

I think her baby hair (aka, what hair?) and the fact that she has only 2 bottom teeth make me feel like she is still a tiny baby. I forget that she is almost 1 and will be doing more and more of these things as the days go by. Speaking of which, I would just like to officially invite time to slow down. I love my tykes and I want to remember this time with them forever.