Found'em!

Fact #1: I have been naming body parts for Lucy for months, and I've tried to get her to point to her nose or mouth or eyes, but she's never been interested in demonstrating her knowledge of anatomy.

Fact #2: Lucy's hair is now long enough that it covers her face if it's not pulled back.

This morning, instead of putting Lucy's hair in a ponytail, I used a barette. Eventually, the barette fell out. When I saw her face was covered with hair, I said, "Your hair fell down. Where are your eyes?" She ran up to me, pointed at her eyes and said "eyes." I hugged her and laughed in delight. Matt was there to witness it, too. I've now started to wonder if she wouldn't point to her nose when I've asked in the past because it wasn't hidden and didn't need to be found. If a body part really needs to be found, however, she'll find it.

Her other cuteness today was calling a puzzle a "puzzuzzle." She was repeating what I said and not using the word for herself, but now  know she knows how to say it. She already knew what the word meant, so now she's all set to use it.

Big Girls Use Direct Objects

Lucy displays some new skill nearly every day. It's a lot of fun to watch. One of today's developments was her first non-pronoun direct object. It's the kind of milestone two English teachers would get excited about. Today she said, "I got ball." She has previously said things like "I got it" or "I do it," but this is the first time she has named the "it" that she got. Her list of words that she says is still pretty short: mama, daddy, bubbles, ball, book, baby, bite, up. She also says "good job" because she hears it from me so often. The other day I did something for her, and she told me "good job." It cracked me up. I think she's probably got more words that she is capable of saying, but she only says things when she wants to. And she isn't interested in repeating  what we want her to repeat.

However, the number of words she understands is amazing. Most of the time we learn that she knows words because we ask her questions or tell her to do things, and she responds correctly. Tonight I asked her if she wanted to brush her teeth, and she ran to the sink and pointed at her toothbrush. Last week I told her to pick up an apple and bring it to me, and she did it. She wasn't near the apple when I asked, and I asked her to do two things in the same question, so I was very impressed when she brought me the apple. Sometimes the results are funny. When she dances, I sometimes say, "Shake it, baby!" A few days ago, she was holding a rattle, and I told her to shake it. She started dancing. Not what I meant, but really funny.

I have much more to say about Lucy--her physical skills, her personality, her pretend play--but I need to get to bed. Keeping up with Lucy takes a lot of energy. I'm hoping that we can spend some time in the garden tomorrow afternoon after swimming in the morning and nap after lunch. The weather is supposed to be pretty good, and Lucy likes playing outside. I need to clean up my garden a bit, and Lucy can help me dig in the dirt. I'm sure she'll want to go swinging, too. And there may be bubbles. Lucy and I agree that everyday is a good day for bubbles.