Ever MORE communication

It's hard to put my finger on exactly what Kaya is saying these days, but the communication is SO much clearer, I suddenly feel like our baby is becoming a communicating toddler...! I ask her questions, and most of the time, she responds with "yeah/ja" and a clear head nod. Either that, or she says "nuh", and slaps or throws whatever is in or near her hand down to the floor, including her beloved "schnulli" (pacifier).

One cute story that illustrates this clear communication happened yesterday, as I was sitting in her room, and she was crawling around between there, the bathroom and the hallway. After I hadn't seen the likes of her for a few minutes, I call her name and ask her to come to me. A few seconds later, I see her in the doorway with a diaper cover in her hand (it had been in the bathroom, on the shelf). I told her that I noticed she had a cover in her hand, and asked her if we should put a new diaper on her..."yeah" she says, definitively! I couldn't believe it. To make matters even more impressive, she lets me roll her over and change her diaper, with narry a fuss...quite the rare occasion these days. I still can't help but think, was this coincidence, or did she really bring me the cover b/c she wanted me to change her??

She names SO much more now that she sees or hears (used to only be "dah" (dog)), even if only in partial words: pah (pear); meh (mehr/more); bird/s (as indicated by chirping she hears or pictures she sees; she does baby sign for bird); wind (one hand moving around--as we made it up); mama/dada (we've always made the cut, but she identifies us so much more often now, and even asks for each of us if the other isn't there, or identifies us if we walk in the room); "baaah" (ball); "babah" (Baby); and possibly her favorite, second to dog, "bah", meaning book.

She LOVES to look at books, and will hold a book up for us to read to her. There's not much that makes me happier than when she picks a book off the shelf, brings it to me, crawls in my lap, and turns the pages while I read to her. Just as Dr.Joe said, too, she's starting to become much more interested in the stories, as opposed to just the pictures. Her favorite used to be "Pat the Bunny", but it's morphed into Puppies at Play, which she always hears in German from me. The book is strewn with pictures of babies and puppies, but she doesn't usually say much until we get to the middle of the book where there's a puppy that looks a lot like Kahlua: "dah" she'll announce, with glee!

Today, while Gramms (Geoff's mom) was taking care of her, she swears she heard her say Gramms or Gramma. I'm eager to hear that one again! She's come close to saying the sound of Greg, her "uncle", and has also come close to saying "Grampa", though the GR is not very well defined at all. OH, and she's been clearly asking for bread with a "bruh" sound. SO fun, and so cute.

The key change is that it's SO much easier for me to understand what she wants when she wants it now. The biggest challenge we have is water still...though she has signed it, it still seems like a hard sign for her to replicate or remember, so she usu. points at it if it's within sight. Or she'll look to the kitchen. If I'm too distracted to realize that she's needing water, then she fusses to the point of shoving ALL the food off of her tray with her wild, waving arms; arches her back; and screeches, while crying. We shoulda made up an easier sign, dammit!! =) Fortunately, we're learning, however...when in doubt, give her water. She's clear about pushing it away if she doesn't want it! =)