One of the biggest changes is her growing vocabulary.She is talking most of the time. She loves pointing things out, such as truck, tractor, plane, flower, doggy, trees, phone, girl, boy, friend. She wants to know what everything is. She will point to people or things and say, "this?" (i.e. who or what is this?). Abigail is even starting to put words together into phrases: "I love you," "big sister," "It's pretty," "You ok?," "Come 'ere." Every day she surprises us with new things that she is saying.
She is also developing much more pretend play. She loves her baby (doll). One of the first games she started playing with baby was to put baby in her shopping cart, push it over (resulting in baby crashing to the floor), and then rush to baby's side saying, "You ok? Come 'ere, come 'ere" while patting baby on the back. I wasn't sure whether I should think it was cute and endearing that she wanted to comfort her baby, or be a little worried that she would push her over first. She will also ask baby (or monkey, or turtle, or other toys that she is carrying) if it wants a snack when she has one, if it needs to go potty when she is sitting on the potty, or if it needs a diaper/clothing change when she gets one.
Abigail is starting to exert her independence in many ways. She likes to help choose her clothing for the day. Sometimes I am a little more lenient than other times in her clothing array.
She also insists on trying to put her own shoes on and throws a little fit if mommy or daddy step in to help. She love to choose other things too: breakfast, lunch, and snack options; what we play; shows to watch. She still won't sit and watch, but loves to dance to the music. Incidentally we have watched Tangled and Little Mermaid multiple times. It is so fun to watch her dance around to music. She also loves to sing along (still mostly the last few words of a phrase). She is adding Disney songs and songs from our iTunes to her Primary and Glee line up.
It is fun to see her personality develop. She is still a little timid in trying certain things, but can also be wild and crazy. On Memorial Day we went to a family BBQ. There was a kiddy pool set up. She kept wanting to try it, but whenever I would lift her to put her feet in the water, she would quickly pull them out and refuse to get in. When I tried to set her down on the grass, at first she just walked on tip toes and wanted her shoes on. But then she would also run wild on the trampoline (as long as the big kids weren't jumping).
This week we went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point. Abigail had a great time despite the crowds. She liked dancing on the stage, building with the legos, climbing around on the little kids area, and placing fruits and veggies in baskets.
She still needs mom's help a lot when playing and exploring, but she is getting braver each day. It is nice to witness her growing independence, but also bitter sweet that our little girl is not so little anymore.
