Eva continues to grow quickly, both physically and behaviorally. Her personality is much more complex now than it was even four months ago, and she's picking up words and concepts now almost like they were toys. It's amusing and at times a bit amazing to see what she does, and how.
At times, however, it's just plain hilarious to watch her and listen to her. She's a largely unselfconscious bundle of inquisitiveness, playfulness and affection, balanced by a pronounced stubborn streak and a good old-fashioned temper. I like her.
Kate tends to be much more active in teaching Eva specifics like the alphabet, numbers and of course signs. I'll do such things in a more desultory, accidental way. I prefer to simply be around, provide her with a range of toys or an environment like going outside, and mostly let her discover her own amusements. Of course I play with her too, but Kate takes a serious initiative in things like this. She's a much better mother than I am.
Both with our explicit instruction, and through the Signing Time videos, and through just paying attention, Eva's loading up her vocabulary almost on a daily basis. A brief (not complete) lexicon of Eva-speak:
Kitty (formerly kit-tieh): cat
Doggy (formerly dog-gieh): dog
Tawaz: colors (i.e. crayons)
Bass: bath
Sawah: shower
Gapes: grapes
Nana: banana
Sasu: dinosaur (among her stuffed animals)
Side: Outside (i.e. I want to go outside!)
Out: Up (i.e. pick me up! We're working on this one)
Aa' done: All done (frequently screamed during a tantrum, or said when she's scared of something)
Sat: What's that?
Ta-ta: cracker
Waddah: water
AAHHH-gin: again (i.e. do that again!)
Sauce: Applesauce
Pizza: (she's gotten this one perfectly since she was 9 months old)
Wainjuh: Ranger (grandma Ande's--i.e. Mima's--Ranger 4-wheeler)
Dink: Drink
Seep: sleep
The list could go on and on, but that's a decent sampling of how her language approaches English pretty well, though she rarely puts several words together. She's still pretty much a one-word-at-a-time speaker.
What's more interesting is her personality, how she's learning coyness and even some skills at manipulation. But there's no mistaking when that temper shows up. Sometimes it's in deadly earnest, when she's howling with all her might for something different than what we're giving her, like some nights on going to bed, or frequently being strapped into her baby seat in the car. A recent development is brief flashes of the temper, when she logs a more or less perfunctory protest but seems to know she's going to lose.
She pulled one of these last night, after we'd lowered her into her crib for the night. Part of the new ritual in putting her to sleep is letting her finish her bottle of water before we take it away and turn out the light. So she stalls, sips the bottle slowly, rolls over on top of it and generally refuses to give it up. Some nights she's more charming than others, but still, by and large, when your baby wants to stretch the day out and make sure you keep her company, it's a wonderful thing. Still, bedtime is bedtime.
Eva had selected, among her many dozens of stuffed animals, a small gray koala to go into the crib with her (along with four other bears, a doll and a couple of blankies). I dropped the koala into the crib next to her as she clutched her bottle and resisted giving it to Kate.
Kate remained patient, counted to three, and then took the bottle from Eva's grasping hands. As soon as she'd lost the bottle Eva yelped sharply, grabbed the koala and threw it straight up into the air. It flew up, came back down and landed right in front of her. She ignored it and began a sullen pout, sucking on her red blankie while staring straight ahead.
That was a new kind of protest. It wasn't a genuine attempt to escape or sway us to her will. It was an expletive, a single burst of frustration followed by resigned acceptance of the truth. I was blown away. (I was also laughing to the point of coughing my lungs up.) Our 20-month-old baby had effectively just sworn at us.
Eva's also learning to count. Kate's taught her much of the alphabet (she tends to lose focus if I try to run through it backwards), so now she's turned her attention to numbers. Kate will make the ASL sign for each number in turn, and Eva will speak them. First up to ten, and now up to twenty. Based on tonight's effort, she has a little way to go. A recap of Eva's responses as Kate made the signs:
(1) One!
(2) Two!
(3) Fee!
(4) Fouah!
(5) Five!
(6) Six!
(7) Semmen!
(8) Eight!
(9) Nine!
(10) Ten!
(11) Leven!
(12) Twel!
(13) Benteen!
(14) Benteen!
(15) Benteen!
(16) Benteen!
(17) Benteen!
(18) Twunny!
(19) Twunny!
(20) Twunny!
So Eva's got a little ways to go with the numbers, but I think she's off to a fine start. She told her first story the other day, speaking a string of words which implied an actual sequence of events: "Mama. Dada. Kitty. Pizza. Sauce. Dink. Bass. Seep." Kate heard it and was pretty amazed.
So she's doing a fine job growing up, eating plenty of yogurt and getting her calcium, still in the 99th percentile for height and 75th for weight--tall and slim. Since I'm not so physically imposing myself, I'm hoping Eva winds up 6'6" and scares 98% of the boys away so they won't pester her in high school.
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