Our Playful Penguin

Sophie has had a love for all sorts of birds for as long as we can remember. I think we first realized it while we were visiting Australia and she was enamored by the chickens at the Collingwood Farm when she was about 5 months old. She has a deep appreciation for penguins in particular these days. When she was about 15 months old she picked out a stuffed penguin that we got while visiting the Jacksonville Zoo. We aptly named him Jax and he hasn't left her side ever since. We've since added Pinky from the Shedd Aquarium to the mix. Pinky and Jax are her buddies. Shedd has a pretty cool Penguin Exhibit that we've been to a few times. Sophie loves to dress up as a penguin at the exhibit and waddle around like 'Jax'. I'd love to figure out how to make one of these costumes for her as they were apparently custom made for the aquarium and they don't sell them. If only I knew how to sew or had a sewing machine.

Sophie's Secret Language Revealed

Any parents of toddlers know and love when their little one's language starts developing and, if like Rich and I, they hang on every new word their LO adds to their vocalb. Sophie has had a fairly extensive vocalbuarly since her first few words of mama, dada, baba, nana, pop, pumpkin and button back when she was 10 months old. It's since grown exponetially. I wrote down a list of her vocalb back before her 16 month doctors appointment.  It was easier than to keep tabs on her developments.

For the past week or so her brain is working overtime and she's been adding a few new words a day... yesterday they were 'orange, pizza, beer

Ice pop, please!

goat'. Sophie's always been into music and associates certain things with specific songs, ie. she sings 'twinkle twinkle little star' tune when she sees a star, or 'trot ol' joe' (a song about a horse from her merry music makers class) when she sees a horse. She calls any recognizable Disney character she says 'Hot Dog' (one of her new favorite shows is Micky Mouse Clubhouse and the Hot Dog song/dance is her ultimate fav. atm). She says 'backpack, backpack' for anyone/thing resembling Dora the Explorer (a program she has only watched a handful of times). It's so fun and a bit of a mystery at times figuring out what she associates certain things with. For a while now she's been oinking like a pig anytime she sees coins which she associates with her piggy bank. She's been known to look through purses for coins and puts them in her bank. Our little saver :) On our evening walks we've been so lucky to see puppetbike (who she calls 'meow' because of her favorite cat puppets that star in the puppet bike shows). Puppetbike fans put dollar bills in his house, some older folk try to give Sophie their bills to put in the house, though she doesn't get that concept just yet. The other night we had some dollar bills on the table, she points and says 'meow, meow' associating the dollar bills with puppetbike, of course! So cute, and fun. I love this guessing game and it all makes total sense to me, it's like our secret family language. Addendum- this post is nearly a month old. I didn't get to posting til now. Since drafting this Sophie has started with sentences... her first 'I hit head' which she now says everytime she hurts her self or is afraid, I want milk, ice pop please, thanks mama (or dada), I love mama and I love bread have since been added. She now knows all of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters by name and repeats everything we say. Super inquisitive, she is already asking questions like 'what's that' and 'why'. Every day is such a fun adventure at this age.