For a child who has only been walking for a couple of weeks, Uma sure is good at it. Sure, she falls all the time, but she is basically a full-time walker now. She has excellent quads, too, judging by the squats she can do.

She's also learned to say a few more words. Yesterday she started saying "bye-bye," just as I was leaving for work. She says it "bah bah," but it's obvious what she means, and she does a cute high-pitched tilt as she says it. Uma also says "squirrel" as "querr," and said "bed" this morning as "beh." Earlier this week she learned "tube" as "bvoo" and "butterfly" as "bffy." We're trying to teach her to stay away from dirty things by calling them "yucky;" she has great fun responding "yuh yuh" and otherwise ignoring us.

I've stopped trying to keep track of the words she understands; it's at least 50, including body parts, actions, animals, and so forth. We're not having any more luck with signs; she knows to do a particular sign when she hears a particular word, but she doesn't realize she can sign "drink" in order to ask for water. She has "dog" nailed, though.

One thing Uma takes delight in is her little music maker that goes with her high chair (aka the command center). It's stored hanging on the back of the chair well within her reach. She loves to march over to it to get the music going. When it stops, we often hear her "uh oh."

Uma's interpretation of "uh oh" is a little different than what you might expect. She certainly uses it after something undesired happens like the music stopping, dropping something accidentally, or closing a door. However, she also uses it before something happens. How does she know? Well... Yesterday morning, I was holding her shirt up to show her the dinosaur on the front. She grabbed it, said "uh oh," and threw it aside. That same morning, as I was feeding her breakfast, she took a chunk of apple, looked me straight in the eye and said "uh oh," and dropped it down her front.

Speaking of breakfast, she's had an enormous appetite recently. It's tapered off as this week has progressed, but last week Uma was eating a truly prodigious amount. I'm certain some of it has to do with walking so much, but it's likely she's also having a growth spurt. Her standard breakfast was about 1/4 of a Royal Gala apple, at least 1/3 cup cooked oatmeal, and all of the non-crust parts of a piece of toast smeared with hummus. She really, really, really likes that last one, which we call "happy toast." She gets so excited when I bring out the toast and start spreading the hummus. She starts alternately yelling with impatience and shrieking with delight, making her lip-smacking "num num num" noise that she does when she wants food.

We've broadened her diet considerably from what she was getting at the beginning of the year. With the exception of mango, we've exposed Uma to every likely food allergen without issue: soy, nuts, eggs, dairy, wheat, etc. We're still a little cautious giving her new foods, only giving her new foods in the morning or early afternoon. Otherwise, if she has trouble digesting them, she can wake up in the night. Generally, she eats at least a little bit of what we had for dinner the previous night. It's hard to pin down her tastes. She's liked sweet things, sour things, salty things, and spicy things, but she's also disliked things from each of those categories. She even ate (and enjoyed) plain feta cheese. It was a rocky start, but Uma's turning out to be a good little eater. We ourselves had a bit to learn about communication and respecting her wishes.

The new thing in playing is taking things out and putting them back again. It used to be all about throwing things on the floor, but now she also likes to put things back. Uma can go a surprisingly long time putting something on a table, moving it to the floor, putting it on the table, moving it to the floor, et cetera ad infinitum. She likes putting things inside other things, often not where you would expect. As a result, we find blocks and toys in surprising places, and have to carefully sort through the office trash and our laundry hampers. The girl has an agenda. We just don't know what it is.

Labels: words

posted by Ketan @ 7/07/2006 10:11:00 PM