I am noticing more and more that there is a 2-way street of communication between Kate and I. I mean, there always was on some level, obviously, but now she’s responding to things that I say and movements that I make.

I haven’t been very good about using the signs that I intend to teach her, but I’ve been trying to be consistent about signing and saying “Milkies?” before I feed her. I do the sign three or so times, then nurse her. Now when I sign milk and ask if she wants milkies she stares at my hand intently, stares at my face, grins huge, and dives at my chest. LOL!

Once in a while I sing patty-cake for her and she always gets enthralled watching me clap my hands together. Today she stared at my hands for a while and then started moving her hands around, touching them together again and again in a very rudimentary version of a clap: fingers bent, hands waving in the air for a moment before mashing together a few times. It was awesome! I was all, “YAAYYY!! Wow, what a good girl! Yayyy!!!!” and she thought it was awesome, too. So we did that over and over, each time ending with her getting giddy. I need to get it on video, she is to freakin’ cute.

This past week I started practicing “gentle” when petting the kitties. They are extremely patient creatures, as little baby hands are not incredibly gentle to start with, but she absolutely needs to learn proper manners with pets for when she meets animals that are not so forgiving. Well, that plus I do think my cats would appreciate not having their fur yanked.

Along with this increased level of understanding comes with it the word “no.” I really have never used that word with her until this week, as she was simply a baby and didn’t understand one thing from another, I would just remove her from a situation or replace an object with a toy. But now I find I am starting to say no here and there in certain situations, along with explaining in baby terms. “No, we sit in the tub.” “Nuh-uh, that’s mommy’s, this one here is yours.” It’s not something I really thought about or decided, either, it just seemed to pop out of my mouth at a certain point, when it felt appropriate. Much to my surprize she very rarely throws any fits about things being taken away from her. With her spunk I really thought she’d be the kid screaming in anger, but she remains very calm most of the time. Determined, yes. She will stay alert, interested, and keep trying to do whatever it is, sometimes with grunts and growls of determination. But it’s very rare that she cries or whines when I move her or take something away. I am sure that will change!