Chatter-box

Miss Layla has become quite the chatter-box. She has always been a talker, but these last two weeks she has really stepped it up.

She's mimicking what we say. New words have been added to her vocabulary in just a short amount of time.

She jabbers ALL the time!

She has always liked "talking" on her cell phone...which simply consisted of holding it up to her ear (head tilted slightly) and saying "hi."















Now she walks around with her phone carrying on a conversation in her own little language. If only I had a video to show.

She will say something and look up at me as if I should understand what she just said. Talking to us (and herself) has become quite the norm.

It's actually nice as she will entertain herself a bit better now...reading a book and talking away.

She is currently talking to herself in the mirror on the closet door

Some of her new words are: all done, apple, nana, pappaw, hat, eye, nose, mouth, toe, wow, whoa. Add these to her other list of words and she's developing quite a vocabulary.

She says more in a mimicking fashion ("say ____")...but if you were to hear them outside of that context, you probably couldn't make out what she's saying.

She knows some animal sounds (dog, cat, cow, sheep, snake, and duck sort-of).

She can point to all her body parts (head, ears, nose, mouth, eyes, hands, arms, feet, toes, knees, belly). She prefers to point out the parts of others, though.

If you open a book and ask her to find various items she will point to them (i.e. cloud, flower, mouse, fish, lots of animals).

I am just amazed at how much she learns every day.

Might we have a little girl who will be one of those kids that just never stops talking??? Lord, let me think it's as cute then as it is now. :-)

Vitamins, Shadows, & Chess

I have been completely awful about taking my prenatal vitamins with this pregnancy. I wasn't the greatest with Layla, but this is just ridiculous. I *maybe* have taken a grand total of 2 weeks worth of vitamins :-/ Jeremy teases that our child is going to have a third arm. He said this with Layla and I just laughed it off...but this go-around I have quite a bit more guilt and truly hope I haven't affected this baby in a negative way with my lack of proper nutrient/vitamin consumption.

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Several weeks ago Layla found her shadow for the first time. It was so stinkin' cute to watch! It kept her occupied for 7-10 minutes and had me laughing the entire time. She would run over where she could see it in front of her and do several things. She first "ooo-oooo-ooooed" in perfect Layla fashion while looking back and forth from her shadow to me. She would bend down in an attempt to touch it and/or pick it up. She waved her arms around while watching her shadow do the same thing. She waved her head back and forth. But the cutest part of it all was her side-stepping over to me to get away from it...keeping an eye on her shadow and watching in wonderment/amazement/confusion (I don't know?) as it followed her right along. She would then give up and run right to me and turn around to see that her shadow had disappeared. She would run back over to the foyer (where she could see it the best) and repeat the process over again. TOO CUTE!!! If only I had a video camera to capture the moment...

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Let me just preface by stating that I have been thinking about this particular blog topic for quite some time...before I even had a blog...and I could possibly go on and on about it, but I'll stick to the main points.

Driving is quite comparable to a chess game. Although I'm not a chess player (I think I've played twice in my life), I know to be good you have to think several steps ahead.

I don't know why I never got into chess because I actually enjoy games with this type of mental requirement. Actually, I'm sure I never got into it solely because it was a game my dad was always wanting to teach me and have me play. Oh how I can wait for those days when Layla chooses to do quite the opposite of what I suggest/advise.

But I'm getting off topic.

Driving.

I am constantly thinking several steps ahead while driving. Not so much in an effort to prevent accidents (which is how I should be using such mental acuteness), but as a way to get me where I want to go sooner. Looking ahead to see what lane I need to be in...judging this info. not simply on the car in front of me, but the cars 5 or 6 ahead of me. This might require me to go against my initial instinct to switch lanes, but I feel such success when I begin passing those cars in that particular lane.

This also applies to stoplights and stop signs. Depending on the color of the ligt as I begin to approach determines if I continue on to the light or turn sooner to avoid a red light.

With that said, it truly is one of my pet-peeves to be riding with someone who doesn't "play the game" like I do. It's fairly easy for me to bite my tongue when I'm in a car with a friend or acquaintance. However, I have had to do quite a bit of tongue-biting when in the car with my wonderful husband Jeremy.

It really shouldn't bother me so much. I should just enjoy the ride. But I can't help it...it's a game that was ingrained into my being from all the driving back and forth from college my freshman year at ISU. It's just a part of who I am.

This speaks of my natural competitive nature, I think. I have to be doing the best, picking the best options, getting somewhere the fastest way possible, etc. It's a character trait I have been working on over the past several years when it comes to playing actual games with company. I guess some are turned away from a competitive nature...but it's seriously all in fun.

Unless of course you are blatantly not being fair. I have a perfect example of this happening during a game of Monopoly.

But I'm off topic again.

I will continue to play my chess game as I drive. I will most likely continue to predict appropriate moves for the driver as a passenger...but will work on not getting so inwardly frustrated when the driver does not have the same strategy (or no strategy at all) as me.