Eva Update

We'd better have an update, because she is officially 11 months old. Good god. Since we last updated, Eva has started walking a bit more.  I'd say she's 70% knees, 30% feet at this point.  So we're making progress there.

To her communication arsenal, she has added the signs for "duck" and "cat."  She does both of these signs totally wrong, but her intentions are perfectly clear.  For duck she says "uck uck uck" and opens and closes her hand (to do the sign correctly, she would put that hand in front of her mouth like a duck bill).  Actually, she does this for any bird, not just duck.  We were looking at pictures of a snowy owl earlier and she was ucking like crazy.

For cat she says "diddy" and brushes her hair next to her ear (to do the sign correctly she would use her index finger and make a motion like smoothing a whisker in front of her cheek).  In both cases she is so consistent in what she does and clear in her intention I am willing to give her credit.  And I am really really trying to get a video, but no luck yet.

The signs she does correctly include "milk," "eat," "more," "potty," and "all-done." She has also started pointing to things she wants, then pointing to herself.  To apparently tell us she isn't just noticing something, she wants us to give it to her.   Like That Banana!  That one!  To me!!  Give it to me!!!  It's pretty cute.

She has done this pointing trick a few times to (I think) self-identify.  When I was facetiming with Sarah and Charlotte she pointed to the picture of us in the corner, then pointed to herself.  When Saba was giving her her bath, she pointed to the picture of a baby on the soap bottle, then pointed to herself.  Who knows what was really going on in her head.  I am totally sure when she is trying to say duck, I'd say I'm 20% sure when she is trying to point out herself.
In addition to her signing tricks, she can say "up" perfectly clearly when she wants to get picked up or climb on something. She has been saying "mamama" or "dadada" for myself or Chad for a while now. She can do a few animal sounds with some consisetency: a cow says "mmmmmmmm," a duck says "ak ak", a bird says "deet deet", and a lion or bear says "aaaaagrrh." It's awesome when she sees a picture and then says the sound and looks up at you smiling because she knows she did something clever.
Every once in a while she does other things that sort of shock me into realizing how much she knows is going on.

Like when Noah gets a building toy for Hanukkah and she knee-walks over to pick up a bolt, then knee walks over somewhere else to pick up a plate, then puts the bolt through the hole in the plate.

 Or when she all on her own decides to give Tigger a ride on the duck.  (She did this for about 5 minutes before I got a video, so by the time I was filming she was kind of ready to move on)



My brilliant little bouncer.