Lara is learning so many new things so fast!  I'm not sure I can keep up with it all! 

Here is a glimpse of what my smart girl is doing this month!

• Lara has 7.5 teeth :-) – 4.5 on the top (her top molar is just peeking through) and 3 on the bottom.

 

• Lara is learning signs like crazy these days!  It is so nice to have this tool for communicating with her!! This month she's added ‘red’, 'bird', 'butterfly', 'diamond', 'sun', 'airplane', 'flower', 'potty', 'outside' and her own version of 'hot' to her signing vocabulary!

• Lara can tell me what most of the animals in her Brown Bear, Brown Bear book say now!  It is just about the cutest thing ever!  I need to get a video of it soon, since she never performs on Skype or in person for anyone! ;-)   She can tell me what a fish, duck, bird, bear, lion, cat, sheep, monkey, cow, dog, horse and frog say!

• Her favorite book right now is Polar Bear, Polar Bear or Brown Bear, Brown bear! 

• Her favorite toy is her puzzles! She is getting so good at putting the pieces where they go!  She especially loves her shapes puzzle that Mrs. Stacey, Mr. John and Lydia gave her!  She now knows, circle, star, heart, oval and square!  She also loves her Alphabet puzzle and can find the 'L' for Lara and the 'A' for Apple!  She almost has her whole name down... I bet she'll be glad I chose a short easy name later ;-)

• Her vocabulary is taking off!  She will repeat pretty much any sound that I make now.  She finally started saying Ma-ma (only sometimes, but hey, it's something!)  She's added a ton of words this month, but her favorites are Yesh (yes - with head bobbing included), that, eat, juice, duck, moowre (more - said in some accent that I'm not sure where it came from!), Da-deeeeee, Haeeeeey (Hailey), top (stop), tank-uuu, peeeeease (please), and her favorite: NO!  I wasn't looking forward to her learning this word, but there it is... Lucas and I have a hard time not laughing at her when she says it though... she's just so cute!  But, we try to reinforce that we don't say no to mommy and daddy... haha! 

• Lara is getting really got at using her spoon!  She can eat a whole cup of yogurt by herself now, with minimal messes... we're still working on things that don't stick to the spoon, like peas and corn... these prove a little harder since she likes to turn the spoon upside down sometimes...  not gonna work dear! :-)

• She has become quite the eater (and sleeper!) in the last couple of weeks!  She is beating the boys at school when it comes to her food, and sleeping more than 12 hours at night!  Yay for the return of sleeping Lara!  It makes for a happy Mommy and Daddy too!

• Lara is becoming quite the little helper!  Her favorite game is Clean Up!  How nice is that?!  She knows where all of her toys go, and gets really mad if we try to put something where it doesn't go... everything has it's place!  She helps me get her things ready for school, she helps me put up laundry, she helps me pick up her toys, she gets her own diapers for me... she's not a baby anymore is she?! :-(

• Lara's favorite song is "I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee!"  There's a funny story behind this!  For a week or two Lara kept putting her hands together, almost like she was praying and moving them up and down... I kept trying to figure out what she was trying to say, because she was very adament about it... I thought that she was signing butterfly, because they were learning this sign in school and we have a Portuguese song that we sing about a 'borboletinha'.  So I kept trying to sing the song, and she'd get SO mad!  Ha!  Well, one day when I went to see her at lunch, lo-and-behold, all the kids were doing this motion singing the bumble bee song!  Lara has been a much happier camper since I have figured this out!  :-)  And now we sing this song at LEAST 20 times a day!  She does all the motions though... and it is SO cute... I need to get this on video too!

• She learned how to click her tongue this month... So funny!

I know there are about 15 other things that she is doing, but this is all I can remember right now!  I'll update later if I remember any more!  For the 3 of you who actually read this!  Ha!

Note:  Lara does actually know where her eye is, but has poked herself in the eye one too many times, so now she just points at her cheek... funny girl!