Sunday Night Disjointed Post

I had so much trouble writing Gwen's newsletter this month. To her parents, grandparents, and caregiver, the developmental changes are obvious, but they are very hard to capture in words. I think this is because the changes are by degree, rather than the sweeping "learned to roll over", "learned to crawl", "learned to walk". She does all the same things that she did last month, but she does them better, more elegantly, more easily, more intelligently. Her first word was a big deal. Her fortieth? Enh. We're still excited about it, of course, but it's hard to bring that excitement to bear in a blog post.

But what kind of a mommyblogger would I be, if I didn't keep on trying?

Every day, Gwen amazes us with the new things she can do. She has taken to imitating the turn signal when we're in the car. "Tick-tick-tick-tick." When we get home, she walks over to the stereo, points at the buttons, and wiggles her hips, saying "ditz," which is her word for "dance". She colours now, with the assistance of a box of triangular crayons and some pictures from coloringpages.net (since I could not bring myself to buy a Diego, Princesses, or Cars colouring book, and those were the only kinds available). Last night before bed she was 'reading' one of her books, and passed one to me so I'd have something to read, too. She can get up on the couch by herself now. She has put together two-word sentences a couple of times: "night-night, Dada," and "Hi, baby!". I can see that genuine communication is just around the corner. She is starting to be more obedient and co-operative, and we in turn are learning how to help her be more obedient and co-operative, such as letting her stand on a chair and "help" with dinner (by stirring an empty bowl with a wooden spoon).

Tonight she actually helped me clean up her toys. For a couple of weeks now she has been very, very interested in the concept of putting small things into bigger things. We have been using this to our advantage, getting her to put all her blocks in a basket or all her stuffies in a bin. Tonight I got her to help me with *all* the different categories of toy, one by one. She did a great job and I was so proud and happy. A child who can actually help clean up her own mess? Be still my heart!

On a totally different subject: a while ago, I mentioned that Gwen's hair is actually quite long. It's hard to tell, because most of the time it looks like this:

So tonight, in the bath, I took a picture of her hair wetted down, before the curls kicked it back up. It looks like this:

Unbelievable, isn't it?