Twenty Month Baby Update

[dorchadas]

Laila's actual twenty-month birthday was Friday, but thanks to work and Shabbat (sundown is at around 4:30 nowadays, which means that there is no "Meh, I'll update after work") I didn't get to it then, and thanks to sashagee not feeling well on Saturday I didn't get to it then either--plus I'll admit, I was distracted by modding for Cataclysm: Darker Days ahead. But now it's Sunday and I've already worked a bit on my mods, so it's time for an update!

Last time at eighteen months, the most exciting update was that Laila started walking! She's still doing that--which would normally be obvious but in babies with infantile spasms is not always guaranteed--and nowadays she's talking! Only a few words, of course, simple things like "abba" and "mama," but she's expanding her vocabulary. Her favorite word is probably "Wow," which she uses all the time when she finds something interesting. But it's not an excited baby wow, all full of squeals and giggles. No, when Laila says "wow," she whispers it, either with a serious face or with a small smile. It's like she's spending her energy to take it all in rather than use it on jumping around and shouting.

There are other words she uses too. Just today, she poked sashagee in the chest and said "Boob." Sometimes she'll say "oh no" when something bad happens, and while usually she does it the same way as wow, there was one time she was upset and collapsed on the floor wailing, and in between her sobs she interspersed "Ohhh nooo!" She also knows a bit of sign language--she'll currently use "more" and "all done"--and she knows what they mean, too. sashagee introduced both of them in the context of food, but Laila has expanded her usage. When she's ready to get out of the bath, she'll sign "all done," and just yesterday I picked her up and lifted her above my head. She made the "more" sign and then started laughing and giggling when I lifted her as high as my arms could reach and she was almost on the ceiling.

Here's a video with her saying "wow," at around the 0:31 mark:

There's still so much about the world she has to discover.

She really loves reading, too. One of her favorite pastimes now is to bring a book over to sashagee or me and then plop down in our laps and wait for us to read it. She still has a baby attention span, though, so we'll get partway through the book and then she'll start flipping back and forth between the pages trying to find something interesting. Then she'll get bored of that book, stand up, go get another book, bring it back, and the process starts over again. Once she's older she'll have more patience and be able to handle an entire book at once, but that day is still a ways away.

When she goes down for a nap, or goes to sleep, she'll kiss sashagee and me good night.

How else will she grow and change?