We’ve hit a little cold spell in Montreal. Not as cold as some other parts of Canada, where it has been in the -40s, but cold enough that you have to think twice about taking an almost 15-month old outside. Luckily, we build a snow slide and a snow chair on our front lawn before the temperature took a downward turn so we have a place to play that doesn’t involve trekking to the park.
Amelia is getting better and better at playing on her own. She’ll disappear into the playroom or the living room for 10 or 15 minutes at a time without needing me or anyone else to amuse her. She also has added several new words to her vocabulary, including “wawa” for “water”; “go”; “gain” for “again”; “uh oh”; and she can say “coo-e” for “cookie.” The last one is funny, considering we don’t let her have sweets or chocolate or anything like that very often. But since it is the holiday season I have been doing some baking so I did make some less-sugary raisin cookies in a small size that she absolutely loved.
She is obsessed with being carried around in the Baby Bjorn in the house, and if it is in sight she will point to it until you take it down and insist that you put it on and carry her around in it. Amelia also likes being chased around the house and will start shuffling away and pointing in the direction she’d like you to chase her (she particularly loves it if one of her grandpas chases her and will easily outlast them playing the “can’t catch me” game).
A few days ago we found a book that had pictures of a snowman and animals in winter. I pointed to the owl and said that it says “whooo whooo whooo.” It took her less than a minute before she knew what the owl said and could say “whooo whooo whooo” if you pointed to the picture of one. Even more surprisingly, we have a custom-made book that Uncle Dan got her for her first birthday and since it is quite long, we don’t read it (or make it through) very often yet. However, yesterday we were reading the first paragraph from each page when we got to the part where the text says something to the effect of “you’ll stay up late with Babu, gazing at the stars.” The illustration is of two black silhouettes looking over a field at the moon. We’ve never pointed anything out about the picture before, but nonetheless after I read the words Amelia pointed to the bigger silhouette and said “Babu.” And then repeated it when I asked her where “Babu” was in the picture.
She’s not convinced carrying around the anteater in the Baby Bjorn is as fun as being carried around.