On My Own...

Evalee has really started to show interest in communicating in the last couple of weeks. It started with more pointing and now she can respond to several questions and even gives us her own version of a few words! Of all of her milestones she has achieved thus far, this has been the most exciting for me.
We can now give her the following carefully asked questions:
"Evalee, would you like to read a book?" This will be followed by an almost guaranteed "boom" of her dropping whatever she's interested in and heading over to her bookshelf, where she starts searching through acting as though she's trying to pick one. But in the end, we always settle on Brown Bear or The Monster at the End of this Book.

"Evalee, is it bath time?" This is followed by not only an enthusiastic sprint for the bathroom, but tonight her jog was also joined by a couple enthusiastic "Bath! Bath! Bath!"s thrown in there.

"Evalee, would you like to go outside?" A grin and a totter for the sliding glass door.

"Evalee, are you thirsty?" Eyebrows up, eyes searching a cup, mouth already open and ready for it.

"Evalee, can you find the kitty?" A determined brow. Eyes searching the chairs, the top of the fridge, the top of the bed, all their popular loitering posts. Finally, when she finds them, a determined finger and a nodding "keeeeeeey."

She can also, when she wants to play, correctly identify Elmo, Ernie, Big Bird, her bathtime best friend Monkey, and Monkey's favorite pal Penguin. She is getting very good at getting her shapes pushed into her ol' Tupperware shape sorter, although she does occasionally have a toddler tantrum when the squares won't jam into the circle holes. My goal is to get some items from around the house or whatever to start working on shapes and colors in the bathtub, as it seems like that's where focuses and learns best for some reason.

Keeping on the independence/growing up theme, she has a renewed determination and vigor in feeding herself with her OWN spoon, thank you very much. Unfortunately she does not understand how to hold a spoon and that it's different than a fork in that you cannot jab at the applesauce and bully it onto the spoon. And don't even think about trying to show her how to do it herself. The minute your hand reaches for hers, panic ensues -- eyes go shut, the head goes thrown back, the face turns red, sometimes there are even tears. So the result? Twenty minutes of watching her stab her applesauce, trying to cajole it into her mouth using reasoning, furrowed eyebrows, and an unrelentless determination.