23 Months

I can't believe she'll be two in a month.

This past month has been incredible. Jessica's comprehension and speech seem to have exploded.

Today we were playing with a wooden animal alphabet puzzle that we haven't had out in weeks. I asked her to find me letters - she knew C, D, F, K, L, and O without me having to ask twice. She can also identify Lions, Giraffes, and of course Bears. Sometimes I don't stop to think how much she actually understands because she speaks so little, but when you ask her questions she often comes up with the answer and shocks you.

A couple weeks ago while we were visiting family in Kentucky a doll diaper went missing. It was from my cousins' baby alive doll and it only came with two, so we wanted to make sure it wasn't laying around on the floor waiting for a dog to chew it up. Jessica had been playing with the doll earlier so I reckoned there was nothing to lose and asked her if she knew where the diaper was. She headed straight to the kitchen and pointed to the bin. Sure enough, I opened the bin and there it sat. She understood that diapers go in the garbage AND remembered more than an hour later that she had put one there. I was impressed.

Her actual words have increased too.
Her favourite phrases at the moment are: It's stuck, Momma. 
                                                                It's stuck, Dada.
                                   (the other night in the car I was talking to my Mom on the bluetooth and Jessica decided that she needed out of her carseat to come talk to Bo and started repeating "It's stuck Bo! It's stuck BO!" She of course being the IT.)
                                                                 Oh no, bwoken!

She's decided that it's finally time to start repeating what we say. Yesterday we were outside listening to birds.

Jessica - "Who's that?"

Me - "Birds. They're singing. Birds say Tweet!"

Jessica - "Twee twee!"

She thinks Os and circles are the same thing which is kinda cute. I mean they are pretty much the same thing. It might take a bit more explaining.

She's more fascinated with Leeloo everyday and has taken to calling her Leelee. We're working on the Loo bit, but neither my father or my father-in-law can pronounce my cat's name correctly either so I'm not going to hold it against her. ;)

She points out pictures of owls even though I don't remember ever telling her what a owl was and her favourite song is still the Itsy Bitsy Spider. She hasn't tried to say it yet, she just looks at me, repeats Momma twice and then does the hand motion for Itsy until I get the idea. 

She's precious, wonderful, amazing and I don't even mind a bit that I haven't slept through the night in more than 2 years.. (well maybe I mind a tiny bit lol) but we're making progress on that as well.

You can see the rest of the photos from our mini-phoot shoot over at the Picasa album 23 Months. She found a puddle and got her arms wet up to the elbows and since it was in the mid-40s I decided baby pneumonia wouldn't be worth a few more shots. :)

ps. Did I mention this kid can thread cheerios onto yarn with a darning needle? She can. That's some pretty impressive fine motor control for an almost 2 year old!