New Stuff XII

The new stuff just keeps on coming, so here's what's happening within the last week or so:

1. "I want ..." : This has become a popular phrase used by Jillian. No more one-word demands like "drink" or "that"; now she makes her demands by saying "I want drink" or "I want that".

2. New Books : It didn't take long before Mommy and Daddy got tired of reading the same books, again. So, we got some more books at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. Right now, her favorites are "Thomas & Friends: May the Best Engine Win", "Clifford's First Autumn" (because it has pumpkins in it), and Little Critter's "All by Myself".

3. "Watch" (usually preceded by "I want") : Whenever Daddy pulls out the camera to take a photo, Jillian immediately says "I want watch", which means that she wants to look at replays of the old pictures on the camera.

4. "I do it" : Our little independent girl has started verbalizing her independence with this sentence.

5. "I love you" : Mommy worked with Jillian on this one, and she'll say it (sometimes) if we say it to her. Of course, she won't say it on-demand. But, we really like this one, so we're always trying to get her to say it.

6. "In ..." : Jillian has really gotten into using the "in" preposition instead of just the one-word. For example, she used to say "car" or "house" if she wanted to go into either of these; now, she says "in car" or "in house".

7. "Hold me" : Instead of saying "up" like before, now she holds her arms up and says "hold me" when she wants to be carried. The curious thing is that we don't know where she learned this, since we haven't said it to her.

8. Lost in Translation : Jillian used to have a certain number of words that she always said, so it was easy to know what she was saying, even if it didn't sound perfect. Now, because her vocabulary has expanded so much, and because she's learning new words every day, that we are having a difficult time understanding some of the words. A lot of times, she'll say a word over and over (looking at us like we're supposed to understand), and we'll have no clue what it is.

9. "M-i-l-k" : We don't dare mention "milk" at night before it's warmed up and ready. If we let it slip accidently, then Jillian immediately runs for the kitchen and grabs the towel, yelling "towel" ... which means that she wants us to dry off the sippy cup with milk that (should be) warming up in the sink. If it's not warming up, then she starts yelling "milk" over and over, which is usually followed by lots of crying, until we finally get it ready. When it comes to "milk", Jillian is not very patient at all.

10. Night Owl : It's becoming very obvious that Jillian is going to be a "night owl". She wants to stay up as long as possible every night, and throws a huge fit when we put her to bed, even when it's really late and she's practically falling asleep. It looks like Jillian is going to take after Mommy in this way.

11. Little Miss Helpful : Part of being able to do things herself has meant that Jillian likes to help if we ask her, or even if we don't. If she finds some trash laying around, she'll go ahead and pick it up and take it into the kitchen, so that she can throw it into the trash. If she finishes drinking from a sippy cup, she'll go into the kitchen and throw it (literally) into the sink. And, if we are putting away dishes from the dishwasher, she'll grab the silverware and throw it (literally, again) into the drawer.

12. "I'm fast" : When Jillian runs around, this is what she says now!