One Smart Cookie!

I am sure all kids as they go through this amazing stage of learning about the world around them are smart...but we can't get over how clever Lexi can be. She now seems to singing several words in 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"; she said her first real sentence that I have heard 'It's there.' (in reference to where her milk was); she know how to get her way - and smirks when you give in to her.

She stepped down into the lanie without holding onto anything and she can get her self into and out of her strollers - and on and off our bed. She brushes her teeth by herself. As she won't let us help her any more, I am just hoping she is doing a good job. She knows to lift her foot up when you want to take off her pants while she is standing up.

Lexi is definitely becoming more indepent - lots of 'no' saying and shaking of her head. How will she rebel next? :)

Getting Clingy?

Lexi seems to be going through a clingy stage. More and more these days, it is only Mom that she wants to be held by. And yesterday, I took all the adults out in the car and Lexi started crying. She usually doesn't do that.

Her grandparents are having a lot of fun with her which is not surprising as we have a lot of fun with her as well. She is so interactive and expressive. She does this thing with Stephen where they both squeeze their hands in the air and wave them about making high pitched noises at the same time. That's part of her 'I'm excited' routine.

She is down to one longer nap a day which sometimes isn't long enough it seems as she will be crabby in the evening. So she is getting put to bed early a lot. She still sleeps in the morning until the usual time.

New words learned, new connections made

Suddenly, as I wrote in the last entry here, it seems that Lexi is picking up new words, and she is continuing to do it at a rapid pace. Plus, in the past few days, she has seemed to make the connection in her head that words can be used to identify things and get things that she wants. Her new favorite words:

• up (on the list last time, but still popular, especially now that she can use it to ask to be lifted anywhere)
• "mahk" (milk): This morning Jane came to ask me if Lexi had drunk her milk at breakfast because at mid-morning, Lexi seemed to be asking for more milk. I told Jane that Lexi had gotten her usual fill at breakfast and was just practicing a new favorite word.
• "lahk" (light): This word goes with a favorite activity - turning lights in rooms on and off. Now she's having fun identifying all sorts of lights all over the place - the lights at the grocery store, a flashlight, the moon (which we saw on Friday night, full and unusually large), etc.
• uh-oh: self-explanatory

Next up: Conjugating verbs

Lexi's vocabulary is coming right along. Here is the list of words she knows (or the words that we can make out and know what she's saying):

• Up (when she wants you to pick her up)
• Hello (answering the telephone)
• Habari (Kiswahili for “How are you?”)
• Ball
• Bird
• Kwaheri (Kiswahili for “goodbye” – knows to wave when she hears it)
• Mama, Dada
• Mana (food)
• Key
• Car
• Me (when she wants something or more of something)
• Bye

Of course, Jane speaks to her only in Kiswahili as per our instructions, and Lexi probably knows many words in that language already, but we don't know what they are (it's clear that Jane understands what she's trying to communicate often).

Also, last week we noticed that Lexi started imitating words/sounds immediately after we said them, so our interactions with her are moving to a new level.

A preview of Christmas: A visit from St. Nicholas

Today is St. Nicholas Day. Before she went to bed last night, we told Lexi to leave her shoes out near the door to see if St. Nicholas would leave her anything when he came in the night.

Sure enough, he came and left her some chocolate in the shape of himself! Lexi discovered it this morning and saw it in her shoe and was delighted. She knew it was a treat for her, and you could see the delight on her face. We were actually a bit surprised that she got the concept of receiving a gift! What fun we will have on Christmas!

Hillary, baby!

A little while ago, my mother found somewhere and sent to Lexi this onesie with Hillary Clinton's face on it. Presumably it was a leftover from the campaign, so presumably it was also sold at a deep discount.

However, Lexi can now wear this onesie with pride again now that our Hillary has been nominated as America's top diplomat. Daddy is pleased about this appointment (although part of him will always be disappointed that Hillary did not get the nomination to run for president and will probably never be president) and hopes to even work under Secretary Clinton some day in the Foreign Service.

It's Hillary at State, baby!