fall leaves
Whew! I just finished a mad clean of the house. I vacuumed and mopped all the floors in the house – except Katya’s because she is sleeping. In fact, I have mopped myself into the corner with my desk and computer. So I figured I would try to finish this update which I started on August 4. It has been such an amazing time, these last two months. Katya is growing and learning faster than seems possible.
• Katya discovers more and more.
Katya discovered how turn the volume up and down on the stereo.
She discovered cool round buttons on my laptop which turn blue when she presses them.
She learned how to turn on the TV. The first time she did it, it scared her to death.
She discovered the joy of opening cabinet doors and drawers and pulling out all the contents.
• She begins to understand more and more.
Katya points at the book I am reading. I say, “This is my book. Do you have books? Where are your books?” Katya stands there several moments with a look of concentration on her face. Then she turns around, walks to her bookshelf, chooses a book, and brings it over. I look at the book, see that it is in Russian, and say, “that is a book that Papa can read to you.’ Without hesitation, Katya turns around, walks over to Papa, hands him the book, and holds up her arms so he can lift her onto his lap.
One morning when I was dressing Katya, I lost the pair of socks I was going to put on her. I looked all over the changing table but couldn’t find them. So I got out another pair, finished dressing her and put her on the floor. I hadn’t walked three steps when she shouted to me, pointed at the sock on her foot, and pointed under the dresser. Sure enough, there were the missing socks.
Katya now knows what eyes, noses, mouths, ears, teeth, hands, feet and (last and most important) belly buttons are. She knows what socks and shoes are. She knows what pens, pencils and crayons are for (… to eat, of course).
•She begins to express more and more:
She knows exactly where she wants me to sit these days. She expresses it by pointing at the floor or chair where I am to sit and shouting “MAMA AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…” The shout lasts until I have assumed my appointed seat.
She has created her first word. A small toy car is a “go go.”
She says “Mama” and “Papa” really clearly now. She even sings little songs like “Mamama mamama, mamama…” She also sings “Rrrnd rrrnd rrrnd,” which is, as you know, “the wheels on the bus/car/truck/wagon go round and round, round and round, round and round.” She sings this for blocks while riding in her stroller. She is getting “grandma” and grandpa” clearer and clearer but I can’t really transcribe what she says. It sounds something like “bababa.” “AH” is cat. “Bhk” is book. “Hrch” is yes. She now babbles in what sounds so much like real sentences that it takes me a while to be sure that she didn’t just say something real.
She still uses signs. Her most popular signs these days are: eat, bottle, more, train, bird, helicopter, change my diaper, and cat.
•She begins to decide more and more things:
Katya decided for the first time that she didn’t like wearing a dress. She looked up at me and ripped at her dress, pulling it this way and that, making a growly strangling sound. It was very clear that she was saying “Look, mom. I can’t play in this thing. My legs are all tangled up.”
Just last night, for the first time ever, she started to decide what bedtime songs she wanted to hear and which she didn’t. She is apparently not a fan of the song “The Rose.” (You know… “When the night has been to lonely and the road has been too long, and you think that love it only for the lucky and the strong, just remember that in the winter far beneath the bitter snow, lies the seed that with the sun’s love in the spring becomes the rose.”) She rejected this song, not once, not twice, but several times.
•She begins to play more and more complex games:
She loves her teddy bears, mice and baby dolls. She carries them around, hugs them, kisses them, feeds them and gives them something to drink.
She will walk round in circles getting a kiss from everyone – a kiss from Papa, a kiss from Mama, a kiss from Grandma, a kiss from Grandpa, and back around.
She can fit the shapes into the box with holes for shapes. It is still trial and error, but just a month ago she couldn’t orient the pieces so that they would fall in.
She loves to screw and unscrew bottle tops (if you will sit for hours on end holding the bottle for her.)
She loves to play in the sand box now. She can dig with a shovel and put dirt in a bucket. She can expertly mash sand towers. And as all the other babies, she ignores all her own toys but loves to use other kids’ toys.
She has become a great leaf collector. No leave is too small or too disintegrated to escape her notice. She collects all sizes, shapes, colors and conditions of leaf. She can spend hours walking down the street examining leaves, dropping leaves, recovering leaves, screaming about leaves, laughing with leaves and transferring leaves from her hand to my hand and back again.
•She begins to become more physically adept:
She pulled herself up to standing for the first (and almost last) time. In this area, Katya is not ambitious. She seems to feel no drive whatsoever to master all the skills which would render her completely independent.
She can bend over, rest her weight on her hands, then straighten back up.
She went up three stairs by herself in the park the other day by holding on and pulling herself up.
She often tries to crawl. (She never crawled before. She just started walking) From sitting she moves onto her hands, but then her legs get all tangled and she can’t move anywhere. She hasn’t quite got the idea of what to do with her legs.
•Our house begins to look more and more like a toy store circus disaster. It only looks relatively put together on the days she stays with her grandparents.