Maybe We Should Use the Word Amphibian?

I have a friend who tells a story about his son learning a certain word they don't say on network television. As his mother took him through the grocery store, he started yelling the word repeatedly at full volume. His mother smiled and said, "that's right, truck--we saw a truck."

Fiona's a big fan of animals and likes naming as many as she can. Lately, she's figured out what to call those little green animals that ribbit. She shouts out "frog! frog!"

Unfortunately, while she can make the "f" sound, the "r" gets a little lost. And the vowel sound is a little easier to say if you flatten it out, more of an "uh" sound than an "aw". As for the "g"... well, the "g" is solid, but by the time she gets to the "g" you've probably already made up your mind what you think you're hearing.

It's extra fun for everybody, because every green animal, be it frog, lizard or crocodile, is a frog as far as Fiona is concerned. I have a gekko on the shirt I've been wearing to bed lately. There's nothing like picking your daughter up first thing in the morning and having her point at your shirt and, with a big smile, yell out--

Well, you get the idea.

Where Mommy Stands

Fiona's very much into naming things nowadays. Yesterday as Mommy got ready to leave for a haircut, Fiona excitedly pointed to her bag, and Mommy asked if she liked her purse. Fiona said "purse!"

A few minutes later, Mommy kissed Fiona goodbye and told her she'd be back in a little bit. Fiona yelled "bye bye purse!" And, then, as Mommy closed the door behind her, Fiona caught a glimpse of her feet and yelled out "bye bye shoes!"

It's good to know what Fiona misses when it leaves.

Where Grandma Stands

Mommy reports and Aunt Kathy confirms:

Grandma and Grandpa gave Fiona a photo book for Christmas that has pictures of her family. She likes to look through the book and point at a picture of Daddy holding her and shout out "Daddy!" Or sitting on Mommy's lap and yelling "Mommy!"

Then she gets to a photo from last October of her sitting on Grandma's lap and drinking from a sippy cup. Fiona's eyes light up, she points at the photo and shouts "juice!"

Grandma has been hoping Fiona would come up with a nickname for her. Of course, she probably doesn't want to share her nickname with Orenthal James Simpson.

Recognizing Landmarks

Fiona can clearly distinguish our block from others in the neighborhood. In the evening when she comes home from day care, she instantly starts shouting "up! up!" when we turn the stroller onto our block. She knows that she gets to walk that last block; she even starts trying to pull her stroller seat belt away in order to climb out faster.

She can also recognize our house. What's especially impressive about that, to me, is that our house is the exact same model as three other other houses lined up in a row on our block (and it's not the first or last one in that row). Of course, Fiona's less than three feet tall, so the differences between the front gates and gardens/patios on each of those houses are probably more apparent to her than the similarity in building design. Anyway, when she reaches the gate in front of our house, she does turn to head for the front steps.

Getting her from the front steps to the actual front door is a bit more of an achievement, of course. Going in the front door means going upstairs, and that would mean she could no longer be outside. And Fiona loves to be outside.

The rest of us slogging along on these 90° and above days aren't so sure.

Letting Us Know Where We Stand

When I came home last night, Fiona ran to the door as she always does, shouting "Daddy! Daddy!" I picked her up to give her a hug and she instantly got distracted by the window and started shouting out "Car! Car!" as she pointed to the street outside.

An hour or so later when it was time to go to bed, Andrea picked her up to give her a goodnight kiss. Fiona again caught a glimpse out the window, and as Andrea said "night night", Fiona shouted out "Bye bye car!"

So there you have it. On the ranks of Fiona's interests, cars apparently beat out Mommy and Daddy in a landslide.

Bye Bye

Fiona now says good-bye (or "bye bye") to just about everything. When Elmo leaves camera on Sesame Street: "bye bye Elmo!" When she walks past a door and into the next room: "bye bye door!" When she can no longer see Mommy or Daddy in her peripheral vision: "bye!"

On Tuesday when I left for work I could hear Fiona at the other side of the door saying: "bye Daddy!" I said good-bye to her a few times as I locked the door behind me. I could hear her continuing as I walked downstairs. Andrea tells me she kept it up for a few minutes after I left, too.

It sure beats screaming and crying when one of us leaves.

From Imitation to Imagination

By rights Fiona is too young to have started imaginative play; the fact that she imitates us talking on the phone, or changing a diaper, or cleaning the house (okay, maybe she's not imitating her parents cleaning the house) at her age is impressive enough. And yet...

Fiona has started having what sure look like conversations with some of her stuffed animals -- Pooh bear (of course), Eeyore and Paddington. But even more surprising is that yesterday (and again this morning) she moved her high chair (it's on casters) out from the wall so she could enter a space from behind the chair. She carried a stuffed animal (either one of her toy babies or Paddington) and set it up leaning against the bar on the front casters. She then sat on the bar between the back casters and shouted out something that sounded a lot like "car!" as she tried to roll the chair.

She didn't pretend to hold a steering wheel or strap on a seatbelt or anything, so we can't be sure, but the fact that she repeated the action in the same exact way each time she played her game does seem to indicate that Fiona has taken yet another leap forward.