She started to do the thumbs up sign recently, when she likes something she’s eating or drinking. It’s adorable.
We were watching a bit of baby signing time and she loved it–it has helped her leaps and bounds in communicating with signs, but even more so with her speaking. It’s been amazing! But she’s not so into anything other than Elmo and Barney anymore, and she’s still too young to watch more than a couple minutes before she’s bored. So actually her signing and talking have gone down a little these past few weeks. It’s ok though, I’m not too concerned that her speech is behind. She gets her point across just fine :). We are able to understand more and more. She said bankie for blanket quite clearly this morning. She also LOVES to yell my name. Loves it. In the car she plays a game where she’ll yell my name and I call Ruby! back, then we do that over and over–fast, slow, whatever. She was a huge fan of nursery the first month but not so much now that we have switched to 1:00 church, unfortunately. The first few times she didn’t even look back! And didn’t want to leave. Which is just how we want it, always ;). Hopefully her nursery leaders will survive all the tired kids at that time. She says momma, ball, da, baby, go, Bae (for Bailey), bobo (for Elmo), bark like a dog, ish (for fish), no (which is really funny when she really doesn’t want anything because she says no nah nah nah nah!), bye (sounds like bah more), and oh oh (for uh-oh). That’s not a huge vocabulary but she definitely understands us and definitely knows how to get what she wants through pointing and saying uh uh uh–all the time :). She signs more, yes (though it’s more like her arm both flap for this one), fish, dog, baby, banana, bird, cat, no, coat, hurt, hat, shoes, socks, diaper, potty, and more. The best things about the signs is that she tries to say the word as well. She can point to all her facial features, she folds her arms for prayers (crosses hands more like), and when I ask if we should say prayers just before bedtime while I put her to bed, she always shakes her head yes. Which is awesome because she says no even when she means yes, most of the time.
She pretends to sleep and snores when she does it. She LOVES to read books. A whole lot. She loves to snuggle. She always puckers her lips towards someone if they are leaving–sometimes even when she doesn’t know the person well, but she always wants to kiss everyone good-bye.
She is a very loving little girl. If anyone is sad she will go and give them a giant hug. She was into biting for a while (ouch!). But now if she forgets and still bites, she will immediately kiss it better and give you a hug. She can be very feisty sometimes, but the sweetness far outweighs any of that.
If you ask her if she’s cute she will shrug her shoulders up into her neck and smile sweetly. Every time :). She loves to walk as fast as she could and tries to jump, which is adorable. One of my favorite things she does is when she laughs hard, she throws her head back. She also has the BEST dance moves and LOVES music and loves to dance! She also makes a perfect “O” with her mouth when we say uh-oh. It is so cute. She does it when she toots as well, then throws her head back in laughter. She is just such a joy and we love her so so so much!
One of the funniest memories with her recently is at the Hurst Christmas party. She climbed up to the piano where we were all in the same room as, and started banging the piano. She finished and we all clapped. Well that started the fire and she started banging and swinging her head from side to side–she was so loving the attention.We all laughed and clapped and she did it with even more gusto, then threw her head back in laughter and pure joy and her whole body shook with excitement and she balled up her fists and just was so happy. It was awesome. She also blows kisses, and sometimes to people in the store, and she always always says goodbye to the cashier, as loud as she can. She’s also recently found her nostrils :). And loves to bite of erasers and the tips of crayons, and make lots of messes. LOTS of messes. Her favorite thing to do is open the dishwasher (even when it’s running), climb on and get into the drawer next to it, filling the dishwasher with all sorts of goodies.
She’s so fun though. We will take it all! Honestly I look at her as a toddler so much different than my older three. I wish I could go back and be a more laid-back mother to them when they were little. And probably now as well :).
As far as her heart, it is doing well. We go in again May 15. Though last week 5 separate times (just two days, in a row), she came up to us and was saying ow and patting her chest above her heart. I called cardiology and they told me to get her in for an EKG with her pediatrician this coming week. I’m not going to lie, I’ve been a little emotional about it. It is amazing how many emotions it brings flooding back, thinking that there is possibly something going on–it scares me. I’m sure all is well, but one of the main things that can happen down the road are arrythmias with her heart, or irregular heartbeats. Now I don’t think that she would have them this young, but of course it is a possibility, which is why they want us to bring her in. If it happens more in the coming weeks, they want to see her before May 15 at Primary Children’s Hospital. I’m trying not to think about it too much. We will see how the EKG looks and I will anxiously await talking to her cardiologist in May.
