What's New Wednesday: There are Not Enough Words

I'm sort of at a loss as to what to say about the girl for this week's "What's New Wednesday." I keep writing things and then sitting on the backspace button because there's really nothing that does it justice.

Let's just say that lately I've been doing a lot of standing back and thinking, "Holy s*it!" I could make all sorts of trite statements about how quickly the time goes and how much my child blows me away, but holy s*it, none of that does it justice! Ahem, pardon my language. I'll just record, to the best of my ability, a few scenarios from the past week.

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Annabelle has never been bothered by the dark, so we leave the lights out in rooms we're not using. Yesterday she went into her room after sundown and from the kitchen I heard her calling out, so I went back to hear her clearly requesting, "yight, yight, yight!"

Suddenly I'm realizing that she can easily ask for about anything she needs: sleep, shirt, pee, car, cashews, hug, draw, pour, [play] dough, help, bath, book, slide, walk... her repertoire is constantly expanding, and I love to see her delight when she realizes for the first time that she can communicate something.

At dinner, Annabelle asked for something or another. Probably water. I repeated her question with the addition of the word, and sign for, "please" before bringing the thing that she asked for and modeling the sign for "thank you." I have been incredibly lousy as remembering to use these signs previously, but recently I realized it was about time. Not a minute later, Annabelle was saying and signing, "please" for her own amusement. Within a day and a half, she has started regularly signing and saying both please and thank you without a bit of prompting.

I have been making a point of always asking, "Would you like me to help you [put on your shirt/find your shoes/etc], or would you like to do it yourself?" The answer is always that she would like to do it herself, and off she goes to do just that! 

Today I attempted to convince the girl of the importance of wearing clothing - at least underwear - after she saw through the difficult removal of her own shorts with no help whatsoever. She had no interest whatsoever. She protested so strongly, in fact, that I decided nudity was clearly more important to her than clothing was to me, so I deferred to her. Thirty minutes or so later, she found a pair of shorts, looked in my direction, and said, "help, please!"

There is seriously no baby left!

How have your children surprised you this week? What's new in your house?

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Because I blog for many reasons, one of which has to do with keeping geographically distant friends and family (and my future self) up to date on the latest happenings with the girl, I started doing "What's New Wednesday" to make sure I fit in once weekly Annabelle updates. Because Wordless Wednesday is so popular, I haven't bothered to offer a linkup since most of you are pretty busy, but I may as well ask: any interest in a linkup? I'm always thrilled when you all share tidbits from life with your children and I'd be honored as honored can be if you wanted to do it on the regular!