my polite little cowgirl

she's SO cool

Lucy's awesome uncle John had to play this little game MANY times over the weekend.  Her reaction was always thrilled, scrunched-nose clapping :)

watch her go!

I've mentioned before that it's hard to capture this little girl on camera--she's very busy!

Mini hair update:  All's well! We're having tangle-free, tear-free bath times.  This little lady is even requesting "a bath", so I'm pretty excited that it's actually enjoyable now!

Lucy is becoming a little outdoors-y lately. Exploring nature is so fun!  (Excpet for touching grass with her hands. It's funny to watch her try to stand up without touching the grass with her hands).

Tissues are always a good time.  She really likes to get tissues and give everyone in range a swipe for good measure.

Most of my pictures from today were similar to these two.  Lucy on the go (and mama trying to catch up!) 

talking up a storm

Lucy is surprising me every day with her growing communication skills.

Tonight she said "shoes" as I took off her shoes, "socks" as I took off her socks, and then suprised me with a new one--"pants!"  The adorable part is that she's SO pleased with herself when she says a new word.  She ducks her head and grins for all she's worth--precious!

I'm a self-admitted language geek, so I'm just fascinated at watching her acquire these skills.  My bookshelves are FULL of language books (501 Spanish verbs, Portuguese for beginners, Thai heart phrases, Japanese class text book, teach yourself New Testament Greek...I'm a little ashamed to admit that there are quite a few more than that).  I've worked HARD to pick up bits of these langauges.  I studied, I practiced, I worked to make sense of them.  And it just amazes me that God created children to just learn languages. No flashcards, no study guides, no vocab lists.  All it takes is what they need:  interaction with the people who love them.  I can't quite believe that it just happens, but Lucy Joy (along with...everyone else, (but she's my favorite example, and the one I get to observe this miracle in)) is proving that it's true. 

I wanted to capture a snapshot of her developing language skills at 17 months.
She says:

• Hi  adamently and often
• Bye
• Mom I tried for "Mama" but it's always been mom.  And MOM sounds good :)
• Pap
• Nana
• Uu Jaa Uncle John
• Da-du thank you.  She says it very stacatto and short, right when you hand her something. SO cute.
• Wah  water
• Muh  milk
• No  always like a question... No?
• Yeah!  very enthusiastically.  I walked into her room the other morning, asking, Do I hear a good girl in here? and got a YEAH! from her crib :)
• Quack   a surprising entry in the first handfull of words. (It *may* sound a little like cock)
• Cracker  sounds a lot like her "quack" :)
• Banana
• Uh-oh
• Shoes, socks, pants!
• A bite, A bath  she always uses the article "a" with these words, it's funny!
• Baby  it sounds kind of like be-be
• Ni-ni  night-night
• Iiii yu  I love you
• 2 and 3  kinda.  If her pointer finger is out, she's counting, by golly!
• Amen.  She says it after we pray, but also at the end of books. She reads to herself now.  Badadabadab.  and then says AMEN. solemnly as she closes the book.
• Baa and moo and ruf-ruf  When she sees these animals, she makes the noises.  But the moo is more like vruu.
• Aaall done.   after almost every bite. 
• I dop.  I'm adopted. :)
• up
• yum-yum
• nose, eye, mouth sometimes pointing to the right one... sometimes trying to pluck out my eye
• Side  outside

It's so funny to ask her questions (I have done that forever) and actually have her answer!  Communicating  :)  She tries new ones every day... I just haven't been able to decipher them yet.  There's one that she said several times today that I can't wait to figure out! 

And when she talks to her babies, she uses these words but about an octave higher :)

good times

figuring things out

Y'all, Lucy is at a stage that I'm SO excited about.  It's called "figuring things out" (and it apparently lasts until you're at least 31).

She is really taking things in, and making connections, and trying to get in the game.  It is adorable! 

In the last few days, she's been thinking about different kinds of brushes.  We brush teeth now, and brush hair.  I've seen a baby brush in her mouth (like a toothbrush) several times.  And she has a scrub brush that she loves (a gray, scroungy, cleaning scrub brush--I know, I'm a great mom).  Yesterday she walked up behind me and gently brushed my hair with it. :)

She hasn't been eating well, and I've been really talking up the eating.  At breakfast Saturday she lifted her shirt and looked down at her belly and tried really hard to feed it a banana!  It was so funny!  She was trying to find a short-cut, I guess!

I've been reading with her a LOT, and one book is "I'm the best."  It's about a dog who talks about how he's the best ("I can swim much faster than donkey, I'm the best!").  His friends feel sad and point out that they're good at things too.  Then they all decide they're good at being friends.  Lucy never gets very much past the first part, so she went around this weekend proudly proclaiming, "I'm the best."  It's so darn cute, but it's definitely the "don't do this" line of the story.  Ah well.

Finally, )and brace yourselves, this is precious) Lucy's figuring out who her family is.  I do a lot of "Lucy and Mama" talk with her.  We were at a stoplight and I turned around to touch her leg and say "Lucy and Mama" and she said, "Pap.  Nana.  John."  It was like, "you forgot a few important people, mom!"  I thought it was just great that she knows her family and that we all go together :)

And, ahem, as far as 31 year olds figuring things out... I realized (AFTER I got home!) that I'd gone to two stores and chatted with people there (including a cute but young computer guy) with my sweater on INSIDE OUT!  There was a big tag sticking out from my side like a flag and an obviously inside-out zipper right in the front.  Oh my!