Hair Bows and Shakespeare

We straightened out the hair bow issue last night. When we were reading Little Pigs and she insisted again that the Piggy on her way to market had a butterfly on her head, I went to Amelia's room and got the same colored hair bow the pig has, explained to her it was a hair bow, put it on her head, and told her to go look in the mirror, which she happily did. (I love the way she bounces when she runs.) And she even left it in - which was quite shocking. I had given up on hair bows six months ago because she just wouldn't leave them in.

The only television Amelia watches at home (aside from college basketball with Daddy, which she does enjoy, and Thomas on Sunday mornings) is her daily Baby Einstein video. I've tried showing her Clifford on PBS, and while she recognizes him from her books, she will stand there and say "Tiger video please" or "Galileo video" or whatever her choice of video is that particular day. Last week I told her that "Bleh Bleh video" was actually "Baby Shakespeare" and she repeated it clearly. (Aforementioned Galileo comes out a bit garbled, but she says galaxy and the planet names pretty clearly.) And she still remembers the correct name and uses it. She truly amazes me. It's just so weird to hear a 2 year-old say Shakespeare. Her current favorite is Baby Bach which she refers to as the chicken video. This one is supposed to be for babies, but she was never crazy about it as an infant, she much preferred Baby Mozart. When she watches the Baby Einstein videos, she anticipates the next object correctly, but with the chicken video she will randomly in the middle of the day start announcing the different scenes.

Amelia expresses herself really well and while her vocabulary continues to expand, I love how she uses what she does know to express herself. She's never been one to say "my" or "mine", but she will say, "Amelia's red crayon, Amelia's farm", etc., especially when Livia is here sharing her toys. When it's the case of someone else touching the item in question, she usually stands really close and says it sadly. It's kind of cute and I'm glad she doesn't seem to be a bully. She also doesn't know how to say "Give it to me" and instead she says, "Here you go!" when she wants something I have because that's what I'll usually say to her as I hand her something. This cracks me up ... it's like she is not-so-subtly trying to get me to say what she wants me to say already.

Amelia has picked up on the fact that Daddy has an alternate name and she's used it a few times, which throws him off. This morning I heard him tell her he prefers "Daddy".

Like a lot of kids her age, Amelia loves to spin around in circles. Of course she's been told that she'll get dizzy and to be careful and not fall down and hurt herself. So she spins and spins and says, "I go dizzy!" "Be careful!" Here she is after she fell the other night. She has a blast amusing herself!

She also tells herself not to do things, as she is doing them. "Leave Maynard alone" ... as she is chasing him. "No climbing!" ... as she's climbing into a chair. "Don't play with Mommy's scissors" ... as she's reaching for them.

One of the cutest things she does now is she comes running to me after she's lightly bumped her head on something and asks, "Kiss and make better, Mommy!"

[pictures dated 2/1/08 & 1/30/08]