Gia at almost 22 months ...

Gia continues to grow in delightful ways. She loves to laugh and make us laugh. When we stayed at a friend's home during a recent trip to LA, she woke up the first morning with a very happy, "Yay!" ... the next morning with a "Daddy! Hi!" and the next declaring "Gia up!" She kept waking up earlier and earlier because she was so excited to be in the same room as we were, and really more excited because there were two other little girls ("Babies!") in the house. She was so happy to have other kids to play with in the morning (no matter that we could have slept for 2 more hours before the other girls were actually up). It was during that trip that we went to a pumpkin patch and she instantly learned the word "Pumpkin" and easily identified that it's "Ohnge" (orange).

This morning, she surprised me with two new words: "Tie!" when she wanted me to tie her shoes, and "Cook!" when she was at the play kitchen at school and I was trying to get her attention to say goodbye.

A few things she loves these days:

1. Her picture book of family and friends
   
2. Animals and babies
   
3. Cuddling, especially with Nana in bed in the morning
   
4. The color blue, and secondarily green
5. Counting ("one ... two ... three ... nine!")
   
6. Going to the park
7. Heart-to-Heart cereal ... with Os and Heart shapes
8. Brie, hummus, baba ganoush, and grapes
9. Cleaning up
10. Dancing
11. Drawing
12. Chatting
    
13. Hugging her friends at school. This week, we picked Gia up from school and she wanted to give all the other kids a hug goodbye. When one on the teachers saw her give a hug and let go she said, "Wow, you have learned to let go. Last week you just held on until you both fell down!"
14. Ice Cream (uh oh!). The other day, Drew was eating ice-cream. Gia saw him, and asked for some too. Drew gave her a small spoonful and she frantically made her sign for, "I like it." Drew gave her one more bite and she pointed at the bowl and said, "Happy."

That's the story for now. Hope you're having a wonderful autumn!

Movie - Gia tackles mommy

Movie - Gia and a friend playing in the chair

Movie - Gia reads along with mommy (20 months)

Movie - Chatting with Gia at 19 Months

Photos - 19 Months

We're happy to report that the last two days at school have found Gia both eating lunch and napping for an hour and a half. Yippee!! We suspect that she's feeling safer and more at home there, and we're thrilled. She returned home very engaged and energetic, with lots of ideas to make us laugh. Yesterday, in fact, she did a funny desperate little dance when she really wanted brie. She exclaimed, "Brie! Brie!" while she frantically waved her arms and danced her cute little legs. We'll try to capture it on video for you.

Gia is very observant ... she likes to watch and study first, she likes to understand how things work., and she's learning to discern many things. As we mentioned last time, she's getting colors (even says "purple" and "orange" appropriately!) She signs consistently that Daddy's nose and feet are "big" ... then she makes the sign for "small" and says, "Mine!" And yes, she does have a rather small and adorable nose. She knows that she wears a "big" diaper at night (we discovered that one size up makes a big difference in the number of sheets we wash), and small ones during the day. She knows which binkies are reserved for Nana's room (the red ones) and covets them, and is also clear which ones she wants at any given time (pink, blue, orange, yellow). She also knows that the red diaper changing pad is for when we're out.

Most importantly i her book, she knows that the "park" is where she goes "wheee!" on the swing ... that's where we're headed tomorrow morning!