Woof, Woof!

Babykins has long been a fan of puppies.  Over the last few months she's gone from staring, to pointing, to yelling, "Woof, woof!"

Recently, Babykins has started to pretend she's a puppy.  We'll be walking along, and she'll suddenly drop to all fours and begin crawling along saying, "Woof, woof."  It's adorable.

Then yesterday we were walking through Walmart, when Babykins went into puppy mode.  In the middle of the store, she began crawling down the aisle.  It was very cute, in a crawling on a dirty floor and making people swerve their carts, kind of way.

Hubbykins and I smiled at her, said "Good puppy," then told her it was time to get up and walk.  At which point Babykins instead dropped to her tummy and began slithering across the floor like a little wiggle worm.

Funny.  Very, very gross, but funny.

Luckily, Hubbykins and I realize that not everyone thinks our child is as cute as we do, so we scooped her up off the floor and popped her in the cart for the rest of the trip.

This has become a regular occurrence, now.  At least once or twice a day we find ourselves in a random place with Babykins crawling and barking, pleased as punch to be a puppy.  Everyone who sees her just smiles and laughs.  Just like a real puppy, Babykins is bringing happiness to everyone around her.

Mommy's Little Helper

Babykins has discovered the joy of cleaning.

It all started two weeks ago at the mall.  Babykins and I were snacking on shaved ice with Grandmakins and Auntiekins, when I managed to spill a large portion of my snack.  I grabbed some napkins and wiped up most of the spill.  As I was finishing up, Babykins grabbed the rest of my napkin stack and hopped off the bench.

I reached for her, thinking she was about to make a break for it.  Instead, she squatted down and began to wipe the floor with her napkins, too!  I thought she was just mimicking the motions, but realized she really understood the cleaning concept when she purposely moved over a bit to wipe up another puddle.

The next thing I knew, Babykins was lying on the floor of the mall, tiny arm stretched as far as it would go, trying to wriggle under the stroller to get at the last of the mess.  I couldn't decide whether to gaze proudly and support her new-found love of cleaning, or quickly pick her up off of the gross mall floor.

Since then, Babykins is unstoppable.  She goes around our apartment wiping down furniture and floors and cabinets.  Give her a cloth and she will happily spend 10 minutes scrubbing the ottoman in our living room.

Then last week I looked over to discover Babykins had taken the next step in cleaning...she was creating her own cleaning supplies.  Babykins sat on the kitchen floor with her water cup in one hand and a rag in the other.  She would tap the straw of her cup on the floor to let out a few drops of water, then wipe it up with the cloth.  While I made dinner, Babykins happily sat there scrubbing down the floor.

Now, if only we can help her keep this love of cleaning for a few more years... 

Are you for real?

Babykins has long been a fan of including people in her play.  She'll often try to feed us bites of her food, and there's nothing she like more than carrying her phone from person to person so that everyone has a chance to participate in her pretend conversations.

Recently, Babykins and I were playing telephone.  When she handed me the phone, I said hello and pretended the person on the line wanted to talk to Cooper (her teddy bear).  After exclaiming that they wanted to talk to Cooper, I handed the phone back to Babykins who immediately turned, ran to Cooper, and held the phone to his ear. 

She waited a moment nodding (I imagine Cooper had sage words to impart), then brought the phone to her own ear, babbled a minute, and brought the phone back to me.  And so began her newly expanded imaginary play.

Since then Babykins has offered her food and pacifier to her baby doll, has allowed most of her stuffed animals a turn on her phone, and has even started having her doll lean against the wall in the elevator, just like she sees the grown-ups do.

These imaginary games don't hold her attention very long right now, but I can hardly wait until the day Babykins invites me to a tea party with all of her stuffed toys.

Dai Car!!

It's happened.

Babykins no longer cries when we drop her off at daycare.  Instead, the last time I dropped her off, Babykins wriggled out of my arms, ran over to the other kids, and only grudgingly stopped playing long enough to give me a hug goodbye.  In fact, the other day when I went to pick her up, she actually cried because she didn't want to stop playing with the toys!

This new development has given Hubbykins and me a huge sense of relief.

Despite knowing how much Babykins now loves daycare, though, we were still surprised last week when we asked Babykins if she wanted to go to daycare and she responded by nodding, picking up her shoes, walking to the door, and loudly shouting, "Dai car!!"

Our 15-month-old has 10 words in her command, and daycare is one of them.

Babykins has been making good use of this word.  This week as Hubbykins walked Babykins to daycare, she saw the top of the building from two blocks away.  She proceeded to spend the rest of the trip pointing at the building and repeatedly yelling, "Dai car, dai car!!"

It's been amazing to see this transformation, and one of my favorite times now comes around 7 when we tell Babykins it's time for daycare and a huge smile lights up her little face.

Thank you, Wobbler Room teachers, for giving Babykins such a wonderful place to play and grow.