Magic words and more

We had our 18 month pediatrician appt (stats are posted on the right) a few weeks ago.  She was declared healthy and developmentally up to snuff.  Phew!  However, her parents got an 'F' in dental hygiene.  We've been quite terrible about brushing her teeth, and furthermore our water is not fluoridated, and our pediatrician tactfully but firmly told us to improve our grade.  So we promised to do better.  Unfortunately, Charlotte did not want to brush her teeth, although she has always loved chewing on her toothbrushes (she has two, and our "method" of toothbrushing so far has been to let her chew on them).  But she did not want to let us do it properly (and furthermore hates toothpaste).  I told her no nursing or books or bed until she brushed her teeth (she was tired and wanted bed), but we just weren't having any luck.  And then I thought to say, "please".  And guess what?  She let us do it.  I was so proud of her!

She continues to love music.  She likes to do the actions to songs, like the Wiggles' "Hot Potato" song, but she's so excited that she always does the next action while everyone else does the current one.

She had her first hair tangle!  Guess I'd better start brushing it regularly.  Might need to start using conditioner, too?  We still haven't ever shampooed the little she has, so conditioning seems sort of silly.  Guess I'd better look into the world of detangling kids' hair.    


Language

Her spoken and sign language are progressing in leaps and bounds!  She says, "si" and nods her head very deliberately for "yes", which I just love.  Having "yes" in addition to "no" is VERY valuable!  She loves to share anything she's eating or playing with, and then signs, "share".  She signs "ball" any time she sees one and says "ball" for both balls and balloons.  She says "back" when she wants me to give something back OR when she wants to go back where we came from.

She says "purple" every time she sees purple, and sometimes when she sees blue, pink or red, and even occasionally green or yellow.  I think this is analogous to the "cat" for all animals phenomenon.  She clearly knows which color is purple, because if you ask her to pick out the purple thing from a group, she gets it right about 90% of the time, but I think she also says it when she wants to alert you to her interest in the color of some object, whatever color it is. 


She has a couple of two-word combos.  When she hears me prepping the cat food, she signs and says, "gata" and "food".  She recently pointed at a red heart and said "purple" while signing "hurt" (she always signs "hurt" for both hurt and heart).  And she spontaneously signs and/or says "please" sometimes when she's asking for something, like signing "milk" or saying "ice".

She signs cat  (the sign looks like you're pulling your whiskers) so often and so vigorously that she has bruised her cheek.


Other words:
socks
shoes
straw
cheese
hat
book
woof
quack
bird (with the sign, which is helpful because otherwise "bird" and "ball" would be indistinguishable)
ice
sweep

Other signs:
doll
flower

Letters:
F, T, V, E.  She can identify quite a few more, but those are the ones she's saying.

Sorry, no photos at the moment, but I keep having to add new words every time I get back to editing this, so I'd just better hit publish....

Grammie and Grandpa will be here on Sunday!