Fall Colors

As of this weekend, Ava recognizes and can say the names of some colors. I bought a pack of simple flash cards at Wal-Mart, which she seems to really enjoy. I think her confidence level increased as she saw that she knew many of the words of the items and colors on the flash cards. She got excited when she would look at each one and be able to say the name of the item. “Kitty cat!” “Airplane!” “Bunny!” “Bear!” “Doggie!” "Ball!" One card has a boy and one card has a girl on it. She is able to confirm the card with the “boy” on it, and which has the “girl” on it.

On Friday, it seemed like everything was blue. “Boo”, “boo”. We would hear. “Boo car”, even if the car wasn’t blue. She’s now sorting out the difference between blue, red, yellow and purple. Saturday fewer things were blue, and more were “red” or “purple”. It’s kind of hard for her to differentiate between blue and purple right now, but she’s getting close. Green isn’t on the radar screen yet, as green lights are still "blue". :-)

We went to a local shopping plaza and bought some books at the book store. We then walked over to the candy store, where I thought I might buy Ava a little treat. While filling a little bag of candy, I looked down to see a toddler (namely mine) with a mouth full of something gummy. Yes, she stuck her hand in the candy container, pulled something out and ate it. Of course when I noticed it, she had a case of lockjaw, and wouldn't open her mouth. I can only assume it was a gummy something-or-other. Let's hope so?

While driving, we also frequently hear “big truck”, “car”, “balloon”. She’s very vocal these days, talking to herself CONSTANTLY in the back seat, while we’re driving. Another fun phrase she learned at day care? “I NO WANT IT”. Lovely. We hear this phrase most often at meal time. Amazing how quickly kids pick things up from other kids.

She’s also becoming a little more opinionated with the repertoire of songs we sing. When we sing a song she doesn’t prefer, it’s “n-n-n-n-n-no”. She likes to say this to Doug when he’s giving her a bath and singing songs. He said that Ava wanted him to sing a particular song, but she couldn’t communicate the specific song to him. She tried, though, by singing “la-la-la” to him. He couldn’t figure out the song. I wonder which song it was?

She LOVES to sing “Who made the fishy swim?” and does all of the hand-motions that go along with the song. When we sing the part that goes “God in heaven above,” she points upward and says “above”. She’s coming close to singing the words to some songs, and knows “row, row, row” while singing “Row, row, row your boat”. She also rows when she sings it.

She also likes to stay in the tub after all of the water has drained from the tub. The other night when I was bathing her and the tub water had long disappeared, she just sat there. She looked up at me with the sweetest, most innocent look on her face. No agenda. Happy to be in the tub. I wish I had a camera to capture the look on her face.

With love,
Shelly