Catch-Up

Time to play Catch-Up, the game where I tell you everything that Addie has started doing since I last blogged, and even some stuff that I forgot to write then that I remembered to write now.

As she has grown, Addie has become quite helpful around the house. When we moved in November, for example, she helped us pack our suitcases, and last week she helped clean the kitchen floor while Ame scrubbed out the oven. Next week, we're putting her on dish washing duty, and we'll see where we can go from there.



Addie is also becoming quite the little mockingbird, imitating our actions frequently. For example, just this evening in church she was sitting on my mom's lap and was making a little noise. My mom put her finger to her own lips and said "Shhh," only to have Addie put her own finger to her own lips (with the added bonus of the fingertip in a nostril) and made her own "Shhh" noise. Yesterday Addie was doing something that she shouldn't have been doing, so I cleared my throat, "Uh-hem," and she turned around and looked at me and said, "Hum!"

While Ame was cleaning the kitchen a couple days ago she had a sponge and was wiping down the cabinets. So, being the (helpful) imitator that she is, Addie picked up her own little washcloth and started trailing along behind Ame, wiping down the cabinets. Also, a few nights ago I was clipping my toenails, and when I put the clippers down Addie, having watched me studiously, picked them up and put them to her own toes, like so:



Going along with her mockingbird habit -- I could probably even call it a skill -- Addie has begun talking a fair amount. Some of the words, with examples of how they are used:

"Da" = "Dad" -- Sometimes if I am in the office using the computer, Addie will come walking through the house looking for me, saying "Da? Da?"

"Go?" = "(Where did it) go?" -- Addie likes to hide things, such as under a blanket. When she does this I have often put my hands up (kind of like this) and asked, "Where did it go?" She will then do the same gesture with her own hands and say, inquisitively, "Go?"

"Tha?" = "That?" -- She hasn't done it as much recently, but for a while Addie loved to just point to things and ask "Tha?" and listen as we'd tell her what it is. For example, Addie might point to a picture and say "Tha?", then we would tell her "Picture," and then she'd move on to something else and say "Tha?" again.

"Dah" or "Gah" = "Dog" -- The neighbors have two little dogs that run around in the yard a few times per day, and Addie absolutely loves them. She has mastered the general idea of "dog," but sometimes she says focuses on the first letter ("dah") and others on the last ("gah"), though never both at the same time ("dog").

"Hi" = "Hi" -- By far Addie's most spoken word. Entire conversations have been had between Addie and one of us which have used only the word "Hi." I'm sure she could carry on a "Hi" conversation for five or 10 minutes if she wanted to.


I'm sure there are millions of other little details that I could include here, but I'm drawing a blank right now, so this will have to be it for the time being. Until next time...