I'm learning

I often wonder how much Ela is learning but she makes sure to show me at any opportunity. She is amazing at climbing stairs which considering we don’t have any at our house is pretty good! She learnt the hard way about steps (we have just one) by falling off it face first and now she never fails to sit down on the step and get off carefully.

She knows we need keys to lock/open the backdoor as she proved when I said ‘let’s let George in’ and she pointed to the keys on the table. She also knows they open the car because she will hold and ‘point’ them at the car – she hasn’t realised yet that you need to press a button on the key! She will brush her hair or teeth when you tell her to (and give her the correct brush) and then yesterday she trotted off with her own dirty (folded up) nappy and put it on the bin in the kitchen.

Notice I said on the bin and not in it. She has learnt not to go in the bin after me repeatedly telling her NO and also because it’s guarded by the chicken. We have this singing chicken which she does not like at all. Whenever I want to keep her away from something I just put the chicken there. So far it’s done the trick for the video/DVD player and now the bin. Very useful.

Then there is baby sign language. I started doing it with her when she was about 8mths and slowly she has started to pick some signs up. She always tells me when she is hungry, or wants a drink or her milk, and when she is tired. She also knows the sign for bath and ‘more’. We are working on the dirty nappy sign. As far as words go, there is Mum and Dad, Bob, George, Again and that’s about all at the moment.

And finally she got her first set of crayons at Nannie and Grandad’s today. She scribbled away on the paper before applying the taste test!