In Which Laelia And Amelia Make Animal Sounds

I let Laelia watch Amelia's video of animal sounds and she started making them too, so I decided to video it...she doesn't know all the same sounds (no camel or donkey) and she gets distracted by pausing the video to finish strong with bear and fish, but it's pretty cute nonetheless.

In Which Laelia Bows

Laelia learned to bow watching my piano students practice for their upcoming recital. As they bowed, so would she. And now she gets a kick out of it when we clap for her!

In Which Laelia Keeps Busy

In Which Laelia Rides A Horse...A Rocking Horse, That Is.

Laelia rides her rocking horse from Maga. She's very tired in this video (can you tell by the dazed look??) but she loves it very much! Thanks, Maga!

In Which Laelia Runs Around In The Buff

Showing off her running skills and the fact that she escaped from the changing

room without many clothes on!

In Which Laelia Thanks You For Her Christmas Gifts

These were the last gifts Laelia opened (it took us 3 days to get through them all) and she said, "Wow!" for everything she opened. Her hand going up to her mouth and coming back down is how you sign, 'thank you.'

In Which Laelia and Daddy Stick Our Their Tongues

Jeremy spent his Christmas Vacation teaching Laelia a new trick or two...

Growling Girls

Laelia and Vanora spent the better part of our walk growling back and forth at each other. It was mostly Laelia copying Vanora, and it was great! I'm sure their communication skills will mature as they grow!

She's a reader!

Laelia can't get enough of her books these days. She hasn't really been playing with toys, but there's always a book nearby. She reads on the couch, on the floor, in our lap, just about anywhere. And of course she has a few favorites that we read over and over. Right now they are Goodnight Moon (mostly because of the mice in the pictures with color...can you find one on every page? Laelia can!), Peek-a-Who, Are you my Mother?, and generally any books with animals. The one she's reading in this picture is about mountain animals and has flaps and textures and is just great! Thanks, Maga, for the wonderful book! In other big-girl news, we've decided to start limiting her pacifier use to naps and traveling...it's a transition to be sure, but we think she's up to the task. So hopefully future pictures will show her cute little mouth instead of the pacifier!

2012, Here We Come!

I'm not making any promises about blogging with increased frequency this year, but we'll see. Laelia continues to amaze us and bring more and more joy into our lives every day. For example, she's finally taking a decent nap today, and that brings me a lot of joy! ;) But seriously, she's awesome. She's walking, practically running, and refusing to crawl anymore, even to get something from under the table that she can't walk under. She's signing lots and lots, the big thing now is animal signs. We ticked her belly and armpits while saying, "ho0 hoo hee hee hee," for a monkey, and she doesn't say the sounds, but will mimic the motions when she sees a monkey. She raises her arms for an elephant's trunk, and slaps her leg for the alligator's snap-snap-snap-ing mouth. Animal sounds are fun to make too; snake, dog, cat, gerbils/hamster, bear, fish, sheep, penguin, cow, owl, train (yeah, not an animal, but it's in a zoo book we have, so we say it anyways) horse, and I'm sure there's others I can't remember right now.

Laelia has really enjoyed this last week with Jeremy being off work...she toddles down the hallway saying, "Dada" trying to get to his shop, and can open the door leading down the stairs. Today he's back at work, and I had to put up the baby gate to keep her away from looking for him. The concept of him being gone isn't quite there yet!

She enjoyed opening presents...all 3 days of it because she was so slow and deliberate with every one that she opened. She loves her baby doll and her books and her ball-track toy best. She's taken to reading books on her own, and today I told her she should read baby, so I helped her hold baby on her lap, and then set a book on the floor in front of her. She looked at baby, and the book, and then picked up baby and tossed her aside before reading her book! It's totally fine with me that she prefers books!

I'll post more soon, there are some cute videos to see!