January Notes

Words: The last few weeks have shown an explosion in Reese's vocabulary. She now parrots every word that she hears--which means Mommy and Daddy need to watch themselves carefully. While she repeats words constantly, it usually takes a few days for her to "own" them and use them consistently. She is also shy about using her words in front of strangers. Just a handful of her new words include: fire, bunny, water (wah-tee), oops, climb, moon, juice, book, blue, green, grandma, and grandpa. I know there's tons more, it's just hard to think of them all on demand.

Helper: Reese has taken on a new chore around the house. Every morning and evening, she insists on feeding the animals. She gets their bowls, takes them to the pantry, lets mommy and daddy scoop the food into them, and carries them back for the animals. So far, we've only had one spill in the process, but Annie didn't mind eating her dinner off the floor.

Time Out: Reese had one of her first MAJOR time outs last week. We were getting ready to go to the mailbox, and I told Reese she had to wear her jacket. When I pulled the jacket out of the closet, she immediately began a game of chase. I didn't partake and waited for her to come back to me. When she did, I began putting on her jacket. I stood behind her and got one arm in while she was squirming and trashing, and as I reached across to begin her other arm, she leaned forward and bit me on the elbow. Her bite was hard enough to break the skin and leave an immediate bruise. Suffice to say, a swift time out followed. I've still got the mark from the incident, but after a tearful minute or two in her crib alone, she hasn't attempted any repeat performances.

And Elephant and Baby Too!: When ever it's time for Reese to do something (get dressed, eat, brush her hair, wash her hands...you name it), she now wants to involve her elephant or baby doll in the activity. Recently after washing her hands and drying them on a towel hanging by the sink, she went and got Elephant and proceeded to dry his hands on the towel. Elephant also gets his hair brushed every morning and occasionally has to wear bows and hair clips if Reese is. Reese's baby doll eats five to six times a day from Reese's kitchen--usually yogurt, although I saw her putting a strawberry up to her mouth the other day also.

New Shoes: Last week Reese got a new pair of shoes. While most of her size 4s are still a little big, her Stride Rites were growing small and were getting a little beat up. We went to Sandy's Shoes and she picked out a pair of brown saddle shoes as replacements (size 5). It was a close call between the saddle shoes and a pair of eye-shocking neon pink ones. Needless to say, mommy breathed a sigh of relief when I saw her choice.