Reading, Counting, Speaking

You can never have too many copies of "Hop on Pop".
As I've mentioned before, I love to read books! I've been working hard on learning my letters for a couple of months now and have mastered all 26 now! I'll be reading words before you know it! Then, I can participate in the eye-tracking experiments that Mommy runs in her lab at Skidmore and start earning some cold hard cash!I've also been working on learning my numbers and can identify the numbers 4, 8, and 9. And, I can count to 2. Hmmm...if you can only count to 1, is it really considered counting? What if you count to 1 in the middle of the woods and nobody hears you do it?

Finally, ever since I discovered putting words together, my expressive language abilities have exploded (in a good way!). I talk all the time! I love repeating what other people say and have picked up on sayings like "awesome", "nice", "good idea", "hey now", "oh my", and "sorry about it". I also use words to communicate things that I want or need saying, "Daddy help", "Kaira want it" and "Kaira touch it". When I'm playing with a fun toy or when someone gives me fruit snacks, I say "Kaira excited". Impressively, I can even use the "ing" form of words ("Kaira helping") as well as possessives ("Mommy's shoes") and past tense ("pooped"). And all of that in just 2 weeks since I first uttered the phrase "Night, Elmo". Language development is amazing.

Night, Elmo!

Last night after Dad had put me to bed, he was apparently spying on me by listening to me through the baby monitor because he heard me say my first two-word utterance: "Night, Elmo!" What an amazing phenomenon! I discovered that I can put multiple words together to communicate meaning beyond just labeling objects! I continued to say "Night, Elmo. Night, Elmo. Night, Elmo." over and over again until I eventually fell asleep myself. I don't know why he wouldn't just shut his eyes and go to sleep. He probably needed a nukkie.


Here's how Mommy found me the next day:

Tulip Festival!

Spring is in the air and the tulips are in full bloom in Albany! So, Mommy, Daddy, Grammie, Papa, and I headed down to the park to check out the flowers one day after one of Mommy's ultrasound appointments.

Ok, Daddy...let's go see some tulips!

Has anybody seen the tulips?

There they are! Feathery tulips? Now that's something you don't see every day!

How do they smell, Papa?

These look like some good ones to sniff...

Now THAT'S the smell of Spring!

Um, guys. This one seems to have escaped the fence!

Pretty flowers...pretty girls...

The tulips were nice, but what I really loved was the fountain in the park!

I had a good time playing in the dirt for a while, too!

And after a day of walking around the park, there's apparently nothing funnier than smelling your feet. P-U!