Katie's Voice

Katie has starting speaking! Something magical about the month of September has inspired her to expand her vocabulary. She learns new words every day as she is suddenly willing to try to repeat the words that she hears, including the following:
- Uh-oh! (her success with this one started the ball rolling)
- Yeah (by far her best pronunciation)
- Baby
- Cheese
- Outside
- Ball
- Again
- Shoes



The Fashionista
Of course she can say Shoes -- she loves shoes more than anything else! Any time she encounters a pair of shoes she has to try them on. Whether we are visiting someone's home or in the ball pit at Calaway Park, she wants to try walking in everyone's shoes. Her sartorial ethusiasm does not end with footwear -- she will actually try on anything that she thinks will fit her. If she encounters a pair of pants, she will yank off the ones she's wearing to give the new set a try. I recall an instance when she was trying unsuccesfully to put on a pair of frilly green swimming shorts, designed to fit over a diaper. She came over and held the shorts out to me to request assistance, so I put them upside-down on her head. Her eyes flashed wide with wonder and she toddled over to the full-length mirror, a look of sheer joy on her face. For the next two days she could frequently be seen trundling down the hall with her green frilly "hat" on.



Puttering Around
Scott always wants someone to play with him. Even if he is playing a computer game, he wants you to come and watch. Katie loves to hug and snuggle, but once she's filled up her tank with love she can fly solo for hours without making a peep. Typically, when your toddler is out of view and silent, you know trouble is brewing -- you expect to find that the child has covered him/herself with glue, carried a seive of honey down the hall, or flushed grandma's knitting down the toilet. R says that she frequently runs around the corner to investigate "the silence" and finds Katie just sitting on the floor, playing with a new hat or a toy. I find that I spend most of my time finding fun things to do with Scott, and Katie is happy to putter around the fringes, only joining in when there is a chance to dogpile on someone.



Sleeping Beauty
Katie regularly sleeps for 13 hours per night and takes about 3.5 minutes to put to bed. You put her in her sleep sack, brush her teeth, read her a book and then put her in her crib, say goodnight and that's it. She waves at you and sniffs her blanket as you close the door. Done. It's amazing. She is seriously an angel from heaven.

I guess her angel disposition has one caveat: she gives me an sidelong, impish grin just before she disobeys -- a look that lets me know there's fire in there. Once the words come, I'm curious to hear what she has to say.