signing

Dalia is 11 months old tomorrow! She is so inquisitive and smart, wanting to not only know what everything is, but wants to be able to say it or identify it herself. We've started teaching her some sign language and she has caught on pretty fast. We have these books from the library with other babies signing and reading them is pretty much all she wants to do. She surprises us all the time with signs she knows. It's like she mulls them over in her head and then suddenly she figures out how to do them. This video is of Dalia doing animal signs. They are hardly relevant in cutting down on frustration, seeing as we don't see many frogs in real life and it's obvious when she's looking at a dog, but they have become her party tricks. Seriously, the other night we were at a b-day party for one of her library buddies and all the parents got wind of her frog sign and would walk up to her and say, "Dalia, what's a frog say?" She pretty much walks around with her tongue out now, but boy is it cute. She can also sign more and all done; toothbrush, duck, tree (my favorite), elephant (which we made up) and light; and can say bye-bye, mama, dada, cat (more like dthat), belly button (more like bebe bubu while pointing at her tummy or yours).

She's beginning to stand on her own more and more and we think she'll be walking soon. Also, she got a "lovey" this sweet little IKEA bear that's been stuffed at the bottom of her toy box. It seems to really be helping her sleep. We snuggle it each time she goes to sleep and she hands it to us for a snuggle as soon as she wakes up. When she snuggles it, she says, "mmmmm". For the record, Dalia slept from 9 until 5:20 last night. I was up every hour or two. Figures.

Anyway, we feel like we finally got the hang of this parent-thing and are feeling more confident and more joyful everyday. Everyone is always commenting on what a happy baby Dalia seems to be and we agree. She is so fun and funny and full of life and sounds. From outside the house I can sometimes hear her squealing around the house as she crawls.

As I finish this she is sitting with me pretending to talk on the phone. That's my girl.