Lunch!

Wow! It has been a busy few weeks - school starting up (for both me and Noa), the G20 Summit and the U.N. (both messing up Noa's commute to/from school) and the general poor condition of her school bus which broke down twice last week. But in the midst of it all, Noa has been making some terrific progress!

The video above shows something really amazing - this weekend when I asked her if she wanted lunch, she did the sign for food and said something like "unch." We were both very excited and she realized that I understood he and since then she has really loved trying to say it along with the sign. She has been doing a TON of vocalizing, most of it just kind of experimenting and babbling like an infant might do -- but this is totally new for her. Sometimes she will try to repeat something back, but usually it is something that goes with a sign she already has. We had noticed this tendency before and it is part of the reason we were pushing so hard for the sign language because we knew that for her sounds came with signs. But gee, Board of Ed, why listen to us - we're just the parents!

You can also see the nodding at the beginning of the video. She seems to be starting to get the connection between shaking her head and "no" but I'm not sure she totally gets nodding for "yes." Here I'm working on this by just saying "yes" every time she nods - sort of re-enforcing the idea for her.

She also does another great thing at the very end of this video - my fav new trick - she screams really loud and then Shhhhh's herself. It's pretty cute.

In other news, Noa also discovered spitting yesterday which - needless to say - is great fun and it's all I can to not laugh at her when she spits a mouthful of water at me (luckily she hasn't done this at the table yet with Pediasure which is sticky and stinks). I don't want to just shut down the spitting because I think its important that she knows how to (it's something she really had to discover by herself and beng able to spit something out is a good skill to have when you need it!)

Noa is growing by leaps and bounds. It is really now not possible for me to just carry her on my hip while I get her lunch ready... in fact I tried to do this the other day and my arm was so lacking for blood flow that it fell asleep! We continue to work on standing and walking - and she does quite well with her walker (when she is in the mood), but standing is just really tough. She has devised a new game in which is stands for a moment or two and then falls into your arms, which is just loves - and she likes that moment of standing... but the ultimate goal is the falling into your arms part so it doesn't last too long. Still, I'm trying to use the opportunity to help her find her center and get some bounce in the hip and knees (thank God for all my movement classes!)