Baby Love: We've got a talker!

Since I got very much off schedule and failed to update this blog on a monthly basis, I've lost track of what week we're at. I think we're at week 43 or so. Anyway, I felt the need to update the blog this week because Maude seems to have grown and by leaps and bounds and impressed the heck out of us with what she's learning.

The most exciting development is that Maude said her first word beyond "mamma" and "dadda"! She learned how to say "dog" and loves to exclaim it whenever she sees or hears a dog. Our neighbor's dogs tend to bark a lot and she yells out DOG every time she hears them. It delights us more than you can imagine! In addition to saying "dog" she is also working on making the dog noise. She says "woof" but it's not quite as clear as "dog."

She's learned a few more animal noises, too. She can imitate a cow, an elephant, and she's working on a chicken. Now that we know she can do it, we're constantly in her face, making animal noises. I'm sure she's quite tired of our antics!

I mentioned in my last post that we've been doing sign language with her for the past 6+ months. Since mid last week, she's started signing egg (which I mentioned was her favorite food). As she's eating eggs, she'll clap and then sign egg. It seems it's her way to tell us how much she loves those eggs!!

I didn't mention in the last update Maude's habit of shoving food into her mouth and not chewing or swallowing it in a timely manner and therefore storing it for quite some time. It appears as though we've moved past that - thank goodness! I was getting tired of digging food out of that little mouth of hers.

Lastly, the past few nights as I've read to Maude, she's done the sweetest thing. In one of the books we read, there is a picture of a puppy giving a little boy a kiss and the page talks about a puppy dog's kiss. As soon as she sees the page, she brings the book right up to her face and gives that boy and puppy a kiss!! Awww! I love it so much that when we finish the book, I flip back to that page, just to see her do it again.

I can't wait to wake up each day and come home each night to see what else Miss Maude has learned. This age is amazing - I feel like she's picking something up every single day. I've been keeping a journal, trying to document all of these fun developments. I just hope that between that and this blog, I can remember it all!

We didn't take many photos this week, so I thought I'd share some of our Christmas card photo outtakes!