Two talented little girls

I caught Helen doing two of her latest tricks today on video. She spots the dog and does the baby sign. Then I convince her to wave at Tigger. Her wave makes me laugh every time: she uses her wrist and rotates her whole hand. Adorable.



And now for our sweet Caroline. I've always heard that children's minds are like sponges. Now I know it's true. We started having her repeat small phrases of the Lord's Prayer about a month ago. Within a couple of weeks, she was saying it all by herself! She amazes me. Kevin and I get so cracked up at her inflection and tone. 4-H speech competition winner perhaps?

It's not what you think, Mimi and Papa

No, we haven't suddenly become Longhorn fans. We're still saying, "Boomer Sooner!" around here--I promise! This is Caroline's new sign. She came up to me yesterday and said, "Look, Mommy! I did it! I love you so much!" (My family has always waved goodbye using the "I love you" sign and now I do it to her and Kevin.) I didn't even realize it was something she had been trying to do, which makes it even more endearing. Talk about tugging at my heartstrings... I got a silly video of her, too. It's hard to get video these days because she always wants to "see the movie."

Practicing with a cup

The bathtub is the perfect practice place!

Animal signs

This is just a cute clip of Caroline doing a couple of her animal baby signs. She knows a ton! It is seriously hard to get this girl to stand/sit still for a video, so I had to catch her at lunch.

Blowing kisses

Monkey

Caroline is starting to learn things more and more quickly. One of her newest baby signs is "monkey". Look closely - about 10 seconds into the video she places her left hand on her chest. That's her version of monkey. Well, she actually puts both hands on her chest, but she wasn't about to drop her milk just to entertain Mommy

Just some smiles...

A wave (kind of - it's pretty close!)


Scrunch face!

Important Caroline Developments

Sometimes people ask me what new things Caroline is doing. I don't know if these are a big deal or not, but we certainly think they are!

• I saw her switch a toy from one hand to the other yesterday in the church nursery.
• She was "clapping" this morning when she got excited about a toy - no noise, just brought her hands together repeatedly.
• She occasionally balances for a split second when standing.
• She's starting to "cruise" when she's standing.
• She gets mildly upset when we stop her from doing something she wants to do. A stubborn streak perhaps?
• She let Daddy chase her last night - she would crawl a few steps and then look back to see if he was still coming after her. So cute!
• I saw her pick up a Cheerio with the pincher grasp this morning. It didn't make it to her mouth, but there was a definite thumb-pointer finger action!
• I stuck my tongue out (like a dog) this morning and she stuck her tongue out! She was mimicking me! We've been doing the dog baby sign (tongue panting) for months. She knows what the dog is and looks for him when we say his name or ask her where the dog is. I think we might be getting close! The dog wasn't around during the mimicking session this morning, or I would certainly count it.

Of course, none of this is surprising considering we have the smartest baby in the world! He he he! ;-)