Stepping Stones

It is so great to get to watch Henley grow up!! This week she is now officially using the correct sign (instead of her improvised one) for "more". She also seems to create other signs hoping we will know what it means. It amazes me that she doesn't really say a single word, although she knows what we are saying. She won't say "frog" but when we ask her to get the frog, she comes back with the item we request. Sunday I was sharing my baked potato with her and in her first bite I could promise that she said "mmmm, that's good!" Not kidding. It's crazy to us. Last night she floored us though. It was about thirty minutes until bedtime and I was working to wind her down. David and I were in the living room and sent her into her room to get three books. We encouraged her, counted out loud how many three was, indicated that meant there was a book for each of us, etc. and out she walks with three books and hands one to each of us. Of course, this could be complete coincidence, but I'm choosing to believe that she really understood what was going on. Especially since she rarely will carry more than two books because of how cumbersome it is to control that third book with only two hands. It has only been recently that we have started letting her walk on the sidewalk when we go home. We live on a primary road with several tourists and traffic very closeby and Henley...she's not so good with the holding hands. Or at least she wasn't. Now, she is in heaven walking hand in hand and setting the pace. Not to mention the fact that she is climbing up the two flights of stairs when we get home. It is great to watch and even better to not be lugging around 30 pounds (almost) of pure wiggle worm up the stairs along with diaper bags and purses and the like. One other fantastic thing is that she loves, loves, loves to brush her teeth. We're still working on the thoroughness of it, but she insists that she get paste and do it herself. If I can keep that going and improve on it a little, she should be in pretty good shape!