Jane is 15 months old today! Jane is so much fun to be around! She is serious (especially when busy creating art), but also has a great sense of humor. She is SO SMART and often learns new things after seeing or hearing something once.
Jane is able to make amazing connections. For example, I told Jane we were going to go the zoo, and she responded by saying her noise for elephant. The zoo in Seattle does have elephants but we haven't seen them since before Christmas (there's no way she can remember). We always do the half of the zoo that DOESN'T include the elephants (less walking, more interactive exhibits). She learned that zoos have elephants from one of her books. Two great things came out of this. First, we ordered Jane A LOT more books. Second, we went to see the elephants at the zoo. When we got there, the zookeeper was feeding the elephants carrots, and carrots just happen to be Jane's favorite food. She was so excited that the elephants were eating carrots. Now, she feeds her toy elephant toy carrots. And whenever we see a picture of an elephant, Jane signs carrots (in addition to making the adorable elephant trumpeting noise of course!).
Jane also has a phenomenal memory. We went to the aquarium on a Wednesday. Jane saw 2 balls in the bottom of 1 of the otter cages (there are several otter cages that look alike), and pointed them out to me by signing "ball". We went back to the aquarium with Daddy on Sunday, the balls were not in the cage. When we got to the same otter cage, Jane said "Huh?!" and signed "ball". I forgot all about the balls, but not our Janers! She remembered the balls from our previous visit!
Sign language has been one of the best things that we have done with Jane. It allows her to show us what she knows and remembers, request specific items, label objects in her books and environment... It also allows her to point things out to us (pointing a finger at a busy street doesn't tell us anything, but when she signs bike, we realize that she noticed a bike on a top car bike rack 30 yards away--she notices everything!).
Jane is a health nut. Her favorite foods are cherry tomatoes, carrots, and red peppers, but really all fruits and vegetables top Jane's food list. We were thrilled when she started requesting ice cream after dinner (Jane needs the fat!). Jane still nurses several times throughout the day and night.
Jane is always busy. Her favorite indoor activities include creating art, feeding her dolls and animals, playing with her Little People figurines, reading books, looking at herself in the mirror, and watching Baby Einstein movies (she asks several times per day but rarely gets to watch one). Outside Jane likes to look for sticks and rocks, swing, slide, climb on play structures (she has NO concept of height), and draw with sidewalk chalk.
Jane learns new things every day. This is such a fun age! Here are a list of Jane's words, signs, and sounds/motions (new signs and motions are in bold font).
Words
Maaaa (mom)
Daaaa (dad, although he often gets called maaa)
More (muh)
Mop
Dog (without the g)
“Huh” when looking
for something she can’t find
Saw (aw; they are
doing construction downstairs and Jane HATES the saw)
Pop pop (when
popping bubbles “mop mop mop mop”)
Droid (“duuuud” in
a deep voice, just like daddy’s phone says when it gets a text)
Splash, again,
right back (not even close to sounding like the words, but she says these the same
way every time)
Signs
Water
Candy
Banana
Cheese
Coffee
Airplane
Car (same sign for car, bus, van, truck)
Bike
Run
Bird
Frog
fish
Hat
Ball
Book
Markers (we use the sign for draw)
Swing
slide
all done
tree (sometimes)
train
toothbrush
rock
ice cream
bug
turtle
scissors
carrot
pee (jane knows
when she has to pee…thank you cloth diapers!)
movie
boat
paint
Sounds/motions
Whale (looks up and blows, as in blow hole)
Crab (pinches her fingers together)
Dog (licks or does her bark)
Cat (meow meow)
Snake (shutters because mama hates snakes)
Gorilla (thumps chest)
Elephant (sound)
Chicken (flaps arms)
Crocodile or alligator (claps hands together mama says,
“snap snap”)
Lion, tiger, dinosaur (“roar” without two /r/ sounds)
Fire truck, ambulance (siren sound)
Motorcycle (mama says ning ning ning ning, Jane
approximates)
Flowers (Jane sniffs)
shakes head no
shakes head yes!!!!
dust buster and vacuum cleaner
