Banana Juice!

#1 - My favorite part of early development is language. I was amazed when I visited a friend and saw her child for the first time follow a verbal instruction. (I think it was, "push hard" to get the stroller bar to close.) My niece has just begun reciting entire sentences. I wish I could remember the one I heard today, but it had at least five words. Recently (last week) I was impressed when she said, "No touching. It's mine."

#2 - How excited my niece was to make banana juice when her Dad got home. After "Daddy!" the next thing she said was "Bananas!" Her mother refused to make it for her, so she thinks only Daddy knows how. This is because it is considered unhealthy food in their household. Not unhealthy because of the ingredients (frozen bananas and milk) but rather because my niece drinks so much she then won't eat anything else :).

#3 - My niece is really into dancing right now and requested me to play the ukulele so she could dance to it. She really grooves to my two chords and making up a song on a ukulele, that is a precious quality in a human being.

#4 - Since I'm on a roll... She distracted/entertained me while I did lunges and other exercises. Although she did try to roll up my yoga mat (while I was laying on it) because she wanted me to dance with her.

#5 - We started doing something I called "belly bump". She likes to jump on the bed. I had her stand close in front of me while I stood on the floor, then I bumped her belly with mine and she bounced back and fell on the bed laughing. "More belly bump," she said.