Molly is currently passed out after a big bottle and some shots at the doctor's office. She got her Hep A shot (plus two others) which had a little bite and she was NOT happy about it. I could feel the cry come up into her shoulders and the nurse tried to get the band aid on quickly so I could turn her around and give her a hug before she really let loose. She let out a few sharp cries and then calmed down a minute later. She did not mind the first two shots as she was more fascinated with the process than she was concerned with any pain, but that last one got her. Poor bug. She came home and sucked down a bottle until she got air and then reached over towards her crib.
Molly still doesn't have a huge vocabulary. There are words she uses on a daily basis (she loves to point out dogs and cats when we're out and about or if she sees them pass by the house through the front window), but there hasn't been too many additions lately. However, she understands a lot. Just this morning she spent a good hour playing with her farm house puzzle. She always handed me the right animal when I asked for it. She also does this with her shape blocks and other toys. She gets commands (open, shut, put away, hand to me, etc etc) and can communicate quite well. She also loves to babble in her own little language. This isn't just certain sounds over and over, there is a definite speech pattern to it. She will tell herself little jokes all the time and laughs at them. She started babbling to the doctor just as she was leaving and the doc listened for a minute and was impressed. Molly is focused more on the sounds and patterns of speech than getting the right words down. It definitely sounds like she's having a conversation in a different language. The doc said she wouldn't be surprised if she started talking in sentences and said she would definitely be talking very soon.
Molly is also fascinated with how things work. She knows the word no very well and it usually works. Once something is off limits she usually won't go back to it. However, her vices are remotes and the dog's big ol' water bucket. She knows she's not allowed to play with remotes, but she just can't help herself. Since they are off limits she's sneaky about it and will wait until we're not looking or in the other room and she'll make a beeline towards them. She definitely understands cause and effect as she will hit one button and then look up to see what happened. If nothing happens she won't come back to that button. So she now immediately goes for volume up (her favorite) and the power buttons. She will also only hit the caps lock on my laptop (green light comes on) or the power button (which she now knows to hold down if she wants my computer to turn off). The little stinker!
Her dexterity is also quite impressive. My mom got her a farmhouse wood puzzle with animals. Each animal has a little peg so she can lift them up out of the puzzle. My dad worked with her (they have a similar one) on using her thumb and forefinger to rotate the peg slightly so she can get the piece to be at the right angle to go into the puzzle. She can easily do this for 10-20 minutes on her own taking the pieces in and out. I'm always amazed at how much patience she has to figure things out and how much information she can retain.
Molly does know all of her body parts, but her favorites are her belly and her nose. She will lift up her shirt and pat her belly any time she hears the word. When you ask where her nose is she'll point hers out, but then has to come over and touch yours too before moving on to something else. She has to be in the right mood to do the rest of her body parts, but you can always count on her to show you her nose and her belly.
The Little Gym has also been great with teaching her balance. We always seem to be dogsitting and Molly can maneuver herself quite well around several animals at a time. If the dogs are sleeping (and really, when are they not?) she can pull off Spiderman moves to get around them. My favorite is when she scales the side of the futon while walking sideways and stepping over various limbs and tails. If the dogs brush past her she rarely falls down and usually recovers quite well from the impact. I think the fact that she "walked" with her walker toy for months before walking solo also helped. Her favorite skill from Little Gym are somersaults. She LOVES them. The teachers will usually use Molly when showing the class any new skill that involves putting her head down as she immediately tucks it under in hopes of being flipped over. She also tries to do them herself. However those usually entail putting her hands down in front of her, tucking her head in, and then just rolling over. Not quite, but she tries.
Doors. Doors don't stop her... they barely slow her down. Word to the wise for anyone coming over, LOCK the bathroom door as Molly will come barging in with no notice and fling the door WIDE open. I try to get something simple done like putting laundry away and it takes 10 times as long because she will not stay still. I wonder if I could get a pedometer to stay on her... it would be interesting to see how much distance she covers in a day.
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