Let me introduce you to my silly, goofball, monkey! Again, by way of some cute stories, I'll try to keep you (and my baby blog) updated on how Abby is starting to grow into quite the character!
These months, Abby's verbal skills have continued to explode. She's putting sentences together and starting to make sense of her world. She'll watch you do something or say something and then repeat the action/words/sentences days later. She has begun to sing Twinkle, Twinkle with me at night time. One of our favourite things she says is "Daddy, are you?" (Where are you?) as she searches around the house looking for whomever. She's still not great at responding to "Abby, where are you?"
This month(s), Abby is getting the hang of third person narration. "Abby eat mushroom", "Abby hear airplane"... I'm trying my hardest to start to say "I" or "me" instead of "Mommy" so that she picks up on referring to herself that way, but it's so hard after almost 2 years of referring to myself in the third person. Also, the third person narration is very entertaining sometimes. I love it when I can hear Abby narrating her life, so I know exactly what she's doing, if I can't see her. "Abby get book. Abby read monkey. Abby find sucky." Abby is also learning about herself too. She knows her full name: Abigail Jean Harding (though when she says it, it sounds more like Haading). She'll tell you she is "awmost two!" with such pride in her voice - although we're still working on the two fingers.
This is the point in our December (look how mild it is!) photoshoot where she heard an airplane. "Abby hear airplane. Abby listen ears."
Abby's starting to have favourites too. She loves to read books. Among her absolute favourite books are Jillian Jiggs and Curious George books. We read them over and over and over. To the point where she can start reciting them by heart. It's adorable when she finishes the sentences, you know she's really listening and loving everything she hears. It makes all the time spent reading the same stories ad nauseam worth it. Abby's graduated to "big girl" books too. No more is she required to read only board books, but now is learning the love of paper books. Though, in a single day of reading she got about three paper cuts, tore a page in Curious George and then bled all over Jillian Jiggs when her paper cuts opened after her bath. Her favourite books are showing battle wounds.
As we sometimes do, Abby and I walked down to the grocery store near us. I push her in the stroller and she gets out and runs around the store when we get there. This month, Abby discovered the open bin bulk candy section, specifically the foil wrapped Santa chocolates. As she reached her hand into the bin to get one (most likely because they were Santas and shiny - not because she knew they were candy), I joking told her "Nice try, Buddy." Abby laughs and we carry on grocery shopping. On our way home, 15-30 minutes later, I heard a little voice coming from the stroller, "Nice try, Buddy." For the majority of the way home, Abby kept saying "nice try, Buddy" over and over - placing emphasis on the different words. I was trying so hard not to laugh. That evening, we are back at the grocery store (as usually happens when D comes home from work), and wouldn't you know, Abby goes straight for the bulk candies again. D chases after her this time and as he catches up to her, she looks up at him and says "Nice try, Buddy!" This time, D (not knowing the rest of the story) starts cracking up, wondering where that came from. Anyway, it was a very amusing incident. Even now, whenever Abby's doing something she isn't supposed to do, we'll hear her say "nice try, Buddy!" as we approach. It's so hard to enforce discipline when she says it!
Abby's imagination has started to explode these past few months. Not only is she starting to play independently, but she's starting to play! She's making food in her kitchen, dressing and reading to her dolls and stuffed animals, she's building things with Lego (mostly towers and boats). She mimics D and I all the time. She loves calling Papa on her cell phone. Every time we pick up a phone it's "Call Papa, call Papa", however, whenever we put a phone near her, she won't talk into it. She is starting to see things in other things, like the rhinoceros in her grape stem or snowmen in anything thing that is stacked (three blocks stacked = snowman, three grapes lined up on the table = snowman!). She loves her snowmen. She has built a couple and loves to add carrot noses to them. Any time we draw, we have to draw snowmen... or happy smiles (happy faces)! Happy faces are everywhere. Now, if only she could draw them herself. She still loves to draw and colour. Stickers are also a favourite.
Finally, Abby and I have really been working on letters these past couple of months and it's starting to show. It started with just getting Abby to recognize 'A' as Abby's letter. Well, that lead to attaching other letters to other people she knows. K for Kaitlyn (sorry, Kinley!), S for Susan (sorry, Scott), P for Papa, N for Nana, M for Mommy, D for Daddy and so on. D and I have been doing this for a while, as I said, but it's just happened recently that she's started to see letters everywhere, or identify letters she knows beyond the ones we play with. I was reading Abby a book and she points to the cover - Susan's letter. Or we'll be out at Canadian Tire and she'll point up and say "Abby letter!" Amazing. She's constantly keeping me on my toes with what she's learning and picking up. I really think she's got her parents' love of learning!
Some days, I cannot believe I have an almost 2 year old, other days - I BELIEVE IT!! She's such a little monkey - it's a good thing she's cute!
What a growing little beauty she is.
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