Interactive Mode

There have been so many changes in Nina in the past month or so, I hardly know where to begin. The best I can come up with is that she has now switched into interactive mode. For the past year and a half, we have been trying to figure out what she needs and when she needs it. But now all of a sudden, she can communicate with us. I suppose that this has been happening relatively slowly over the past six months, but somehow it all came together very recently and our relationship feels massively changed. She can tell us what shoes she wants to wear ('cocies' - Crocs), what book she wants us to read ('maket' - Mother Goose book featuring To Market, To Market), when she want to brush her teeth (which is all the time - 'paste, paste' - the dentist is going to love this kid). Also of course, she can tell us what she doesn't want ('no, mama!!', 'no daddy!!'). 'No!' is undoubtedly the favorite word of the moment possible followed by 'mine!'. But on the other hand, she can come over to you, wrap her little arms around your neck and give you the best hug in the entire universe! So completely fabulous!

And look at that smile.....

These are from our annual trip to the Los Altos Art and Wine Fair (last year). Nina was mostly interested in the horse bench in front of the equestrian store (yes, there is an equestrian store in Los Altos).

The space alien with her robot dog.

Finally, here is something else that Nina started doing last weekend. We're super excited about it (NOT!). On the one hand, you've got to give her credit for figuring it out, on the other hand, we are back to square one on the sleep situation. Doh!!

Click to watch the movie complete with Nina's theme song

Bye-bye Ba-ba

It appears that Nina has inherited the sleeping gene from her father. One Saturday, I was already up drinking my coffee, relaxing. I kept checking the clock .... 8, 8:30, 9:00 ... not a peep from the bedroom. Finally, I walk in and this is what I see....

So hilarious, I just couldn't resist with the camera. A few minutes later .....


And here is perhaps the last known picture of Nina with her precious ba-ba.

Since then, all of the bottles have been officially packed away. We started giving her only cups a week or two ago. I thought it would be a major trauma as she has been very attached to her bottle. But no, now she just shouts for "cup! cup!" in the middle of the night instead of "baba!".

Wordle

http://wordle.net/

3 Words

Ok, I have three words for you - "Nini fix bi-see". Subject verb object. Amazing! If you need a translation that is "Nina fixes bicycle". We kept telling her that her daddy was fixing the bicycle, but of course she picked up a tool and ran over to the bike to lend hand.

We had a lovely long holiday weekend. We attended the 4th of July concert (New Orleans Jazz Orchestra) at the outdoor amplitheater at Stanford. Picnic and music - boy, that is what summer is all about!


Nina's favorite buddy Hannah has her birthday on 4th of July (imagine fireworks every year just for you!). Last weekend she hosted a party in the park and of course Nina was there to help her celebrate.



Finally, picking daisies......

Earrings

Wow! Has it really been a month since the last update? Time flies. Nina has been up to all sorts of adventures these days. One of her favorite things lately is to wear my earrings. We hook them over the top of her ears and then she gently shakes her head so she can feel them jiggle. She thinks she is fabulous! Sometimes she wants the necklace and bracelet too. Although lest you think she is a complete girly-girl, her second favorite thing to play with these days is rocks!


But really the massive change in the past month has been in her talking. She can say an absolute ton of words (of course, you mostly still need a translator as her pronunciation is not quite there yet). Sometimes she just wants you to go around naming things so she can try to repeat the word. Even more exciting is that she is starting to put words together - like "mama shoes", "bye-bye daddy". Yesterday when I dropped her at daycare, I set her up at the toddler sized breakfast table and gave her a banana. She replied "tank oo, mama". Melted my heart.

Her first real sentence came a couple of weeks ago. She is really in to dancing and always wants us to put on music ("moosi! moosi! moosi!" - boy it took me a long time to figure out what she was saying with that one). So we were holding hands in a circle and then she wanted the baby doll to join in. "Baby dancy!", she says. We were floored!