Mid-November update on Lexi's developments

Here’s an update on Lexi’s developments. She’s not necessarily learning new things as much as she was earlier, but most of her developments have to do with understanding more what words mean.

• She is understanding instructions (and thus words) from us more. She obeys when we ask her to sit down on the stairs so we can put her shoes on before going out. And she can take something (like vegetable clippings) from Sarah on one side of the kitchen and bring it across the kitchen to the garbage can and deposit it there. The garbage can has a foot-operated lid, and she loves to see it go down after she puts something inside. She’ll usually give the lid a few taps and/or clap at her achievement.
• She has become good at inviting one of us to sit down next to her. She’ll go to one of the stairs in our living room (we have a sunken living room), sit down, and if one of us is near, she’ll raise her arm, which is the signal that she’d like you to come sit next to her. Often she’ll want to flip through a book or magazine with us.
• She’s also good about asking for help when going up the stairs. She loves to climb the stairs. She can hold onto the vertical railing supports (she’s obviously not tall enough yet to reach the railing itself) with one hand and hold one of our hands with the other. We go up to the landing one way, and then she turns, and we switch sides with her, and up goes the arm that’s not holding onto the railing supports for our hand to take it (she doesn’t even look up to make sure you’re still there – she’s just so trusting in expecting that you’ll help her; it’s so cute). She has also become almost adept at climbing and descending the stairs on her own by crawling.
• She is increasing her vocabulary. She can take some action when she hears someone say a certain word. She either waves at someone standing in front her when she hears the word "hello" or else holds her hand to her ear like she's talking on the phone (she knows well that this is what you say on the phone). She also says "hello" herself a lot (and then holds her hand, or something like the TV's remote control, to her ear). She waves good-bye when someone says "kwaheri" (good-bye in KiSwahili). She says something like "up" when she wants you to pick her up. And the other day, we were all, including Jane, riding in the car on the way to her play group. Lexi said something, and Jane responded. I asked Jane what Lexi had said - how Jane knew what Lexi was talking about. Jane said, "She is talking about..." This was a bit of a revelation to me - that Jane and Lexi are apparently communicating more than we knew (although we should have figured this out; they spend so much time together) or that Jane can figure out what Lexi is trying to communicate, even if she doesn't know or can't say the words. Lexi had apparently said something after seeing some children walking on the street (the word for "children" in KiSwahili is "watoto," and Jane said Lexi had said "watoto," although I didn't hear it).
• Lexi has a child-sized plastic chair that she loves to climb into. She doesn't necessarily spend a lot of time sitting in it, and she loves to move it around the house. She's also become good at climbing up onto the adult furniture and grinning broadly as she sits down as if she's achieved something great, which she has!