Things to Remember: Claws - Tooth

January 19, 2012
A list of things to remember:

CLAWS
Louisa shows increasing mastery over her own chubby little hands. She's beginning to grasp things with intention. What a grip! I find myself perpetually aware of her fingernails. They are so sharp, that it's natural think of them as "claws." But it's so sweet, to have her grabbing at our fingers, to see her glee at successfully getting them into her mouth.

DOOR KNOBS & COAT HOOKS
Lately, Maria has been enthusiastic about hanging things up. (We predict she'll be the neatest one in the family.) The poor girl has no hooks at her height, so she hangs things on door knobs. After returning from an outing, she hangs her coat on the foyer door knob. I have to wait until she's out of sight before taking it down and putting it away in the closet.

FUNNY JOKE
After her morning at the Haltegarderie, I asked Maria if she'd had fun. "Yeah. I play with Pauline. Pauline make funny joke." Pauline is another two-year-old and Maria's best friend in France. I questioned her further and gathered that the joke had something to do with a bucket and a rocking horse. Later, Donnie, asked her about the funny joke, and she said something about a car. How intriguing and mysterious, the world of two-year-old humor!

IT LOOKS LIKE RAIN
We had little chocolate umbrellas on our Christmas tree. Maria loved playing them, and we often found them squirreled away in her coat pockets or doll diaper bag (sometimes with their tips bitten off). Several times, we found her holding a chocolate umbrella over her head saying "Tut, tut, looks [like] rain." (This is a reference to Winnie the Pooh.) Maybe next year we'll put a packet of cocktail umbrellas in her stocking. I think she'd be thrilled.

NOSEFLAKES
Maria's diction has come a long way, and she expresses some pretty complex ideas, such as, 'that elephant is playing tennis now, but when he gets tired, he'll put down his racket and ball and ride that tricycle." Of course it doesn't come out quickly or coherently, but, by and by, the idea emerges. She still has a few pronunciation quirks. One that I'm fond of is how she switches around the sounds in the "sn" dipthong. "Snowflake" becomes "noseflake" and "snowman" becomes "noseman."

PTERODACTYL
In the last two days, Louisa has graduated from wet croons and gurgles into the happy, screeching, crows of what we affectionately call the pterodactyl phase. Last night, we watched some tv, and kept having to pause the programs because we couldn't hear the dialog over her noises. She quieted down once we paused the program, only to pipe up again as soon as we resumed the show. The imp!

TOOTH
Actually, Louisa's hands spend much of their time in her mouth, and her sleeves spend much of their time wet from drool. I predict Louisa will have a tooth out before by the end of February.