Sunny Days

I thought I would share some pictures from last Saturday... Dory, in the words of Sheryl Crow, wanted to soak up the sun.


Before we left the house that morning, for our first walk of the day, decked out in her new pink spring jacket (thank you Grandma Cindy!)...


Dory, by her own choice, carries the poop bag, for cleaning up after our doggie. Of course, the bag was empty at this point...


Me: Are you ready to go home?
Dory (points the other way): Nope.
(I like the fact you can see my shadow and, if you look closely, note I'm clutching a mug in my hand, as I'd brewed some really strong hot Irish tea. This gives me about a quarter of the get-up-and-go Dory rolls out of bed with every morning.)


Dory sits on a rock, at the park, on our second walk of the day. We saw another mother, with her toddler poised on a nearby rock, taking lots of pictures and trying to cajole her six year old son into posing too. I got Dory to do the same, in that she sat still for about two minutes, watching the other family. Then she was done and ready to get rambling again.


Dory, no jacket now, as this is our third walk of the day and its gone from forty something to sixty plus degrees outside. To me, her expression says: "Can we please GO? We've been inside ALL DAY."


We spotted this guy, hiding in the flowers. Dory surprised me with her stillness. I expected "CAT! Meow!" followed by subsequent kitty terrorizing. But she looked, announced, "Cat. Meow." and then on we went.


And, as all walks end, the ceremonial setting down of the walking stick... You, Child of Nature. Me, Mama who Need Sun Hat and Good Sneakers.

All the Words...

A list of all Dory's vocabulary as of late:

Dokey-dokey: Okey dokey

Noise

Youd: Loud

Yights: Lights

Nap

'Ice: Rice

Beez: Beans

Cahz: Cars

Guys

Boys

Toys! (always said with an exclamation point at the end; you can just tell)

'Kay: Okay

Sas: Salt

Sasa: Sausage

Books

Wead: Read

Horse

Doggie (also Puppy)

All done

Bye-bye

Hewoah: Hello

Monter: Monitor

Mommy/Mama

Daddy

Sit

Walk

Wok: Rock (this one you sometimes have to hear in a sentence- or at least a gesture)

Holt: Hold

Up

Dow: Down (and usually said "dow-dow-dow!")

Bookssss

Tabee: Table

Shing: Sing (usually song, usually Elmo's song)

Elmo

Doors

Dory! (again always said with an exclamation point)

Me (can mean her, but can mean "you"; another example of "could you use it in a sentence...?")

Houssh: House

Cow

Duck

Cat

Peggy: Penguin

Gam: her Gram (my mom; only said a couple times, but it was distinct!)

Bas: Bath

Watey: Water

Shoes

Shocks: Socks

Panss: Pants

Shirt

Head

Sholers: Shoulders

Knees

Toes

Paws (I might have made a mistake in referring to her hands as paws, as in "put that little paw in mine"...)

Eahs: Ears

Yes

And, of course, No, NOOOOO, No-No, and, just recently, Nope.

And that's all I can think of for now, at 11:30 at night. Her language expands so rapidly (daily) I realized if I didn't record it somewhere, we wouldn't have a way to remember her first real words, when she said them and the way she said them. And I expect there are a few long-distance friends and grandparents (and great-grand!) who might like a little list too...

And a cute story. We had a really busy day yesterday, playgroup in the morning, and then a visit to my parents after that. We played there for a couple of hours and suddenly Dory looked up, shook her hands (her sign for "all done"), and said "all done, bye-bye." And waved. Her grandparents (being easygoing people) were delighted and they burst out laughing. I packed us up, we got in the car, and within three minutes she was asleep. Isn't that amazing? Did she know she was ready for a nap? Could she tell she needed a break? Or was she just tired of her grandparents (just kidding Grandpa and Granny!). My instinct says, she was ready for a rest and she took good care of herself by letting us know. Just amazing.