More Milestones

More milestones here at our house:

Ava is learning her alphabet, pretty much self taught (I know, bad mommy!) They sing and sign the alphabet song on "Signing Time" and they have the letter of day on "Sesame Street." So little by little she has been picking it up. Today when I was helping her pick up her wooden building blocks she started announcing "R, R!" When I looked at the block, sure enough it had the letter R on it! So I started quizzing her on other letters. She correctly identified L, W, D and when I showed her Y she sang "Y,Z" just like the alphabet song. And when she sings the alphabet song, she doesn't just sing "A,B,C" over and over again - she will sing the whole thing with little pauses. She knows the tune, she just tries to remember all of the letters. She has also been putting more and more sentences together. Today we were picking up the girls' room and she started announcing "I climbing in Ninny's bed" over and over while climbing up the crib. Then she climbed up the changing table while yelling at me "Ada poopy". She is nothing if not enthusiastic with her vocalization. Ava's imagination has been taking off too, as she learns to play more interactively. Here is a cute clip of her playing hide and seek with her favorite stuffed animal:

Not to be upstaged, Lily has managed to accelerate her progress immensely in just a few weeks. Now she is an unstoppable force of movement - rolling over and, more shockingly, enjoying playing on her tummy, finding little things to hold her interest on the floor. When we were at our friend Jen Bowen's birthday party Monday night, we took Lily in the pool for the first time and she was just going to town, kicking and kicking and kicking. She loved the weightlessness and took advantage of the freedom of movement. (Boy, am I having flashbacks of being pregnant with her when I KNEW she was going to be a wiggle worm; she was then and she is now!)

Lily has also started to reach and grab toys, especially the ones which dangle above her on her playmat. And her talking - my word, what a talker! I know Ava did her fair share of chattering as a baby but I think she can't hold a candle to Lily. She just coos, grunts, gurgles and generally blows bubbles at whoever and whatever she is paying attention to. What a sweetie!