Day 25 - I don't want to brag BUT...

my daughter is exceptionally smart. She just is and she shows it every day. We do our best to guide her, giver her structure, and share with her experiences that we believe will enrich her, help her grow into a well-rounded human being, and learn a lot. Every day she continues to astound us and teach us things that she can already do that we don't remember teaching her.

Today was no exception.

She is not so keen on picking up her food anymore. She'll pick up finger food like bread, cornbread, pancakes, veggie burgers, and soy chicken nuggets. She will not pick up cucumber, broccoli, peaches, kiwi, or other slightly gooey foods. We thought she didn't like them. We thought she didn't appreciate us trying to feed her. We were so wrong. In the last two weeks she has been adamant about having her own spoon when we feed her something like applesauce and yogurt. She dips it into the jar or bowl and then brings it into her mouth in the right way and says "mmmmm." Ok, it's a spoon and she's got pretty good aim. Well today she insisted on holding a plastic fork and would not eat the kiwi that she loved yesterday when I put it in her mouth. So we speared the fork because she was putting it in her mouth. She GOBBLED up the half that I had cut for her that she did not pick up with her hands. At dinner, she ate speared cucumbers and all of a fruit cup on the fork that she would not touch before today. I cannot believe that she can use a fork! She is only 13 1/2 months old. She cannot spear it herself, but she can get it all in her mouth without any problem.

She also understands how to follow a direction. She has actually been doing this for about a month but we thought it was just because of the situation. My awesome cousin Janis bought her a rocker/toddler chair when she was born. She now climbs in and out of it. Hadarya thinks it's funny to stand on it and hold the back and play peek-a-boo with the window. We have been telling her to sit down in both Hebrew and English since she started the standing up business. Within a few days we could say, "Hadarya, sit down on your tushie please;" and she would. She'd give us a smug look but she would do it. We thought it was our tone more than anything. Well, today we (Auntie Kimber, me and Aba) were sitting on the couch facing the wall with the toy chest (about 10 feet away). I asked Hadarya to go get the monkey (Kof) and give it to Auntie Kimber. I repeated it a few times using the Hebrew name for the monkey that we call it. She turned around and walked to the toy chest. She stopped and looked back at us and Aba told her the same thing entirely in Hebrew. She grabbed the monkey off the toy chest (there were 2 teddy bears and a doll on it too) and walked back to the couch and handed it to Auntie Kimber. We were shocked! She knew exactly what we asked and followed through. It was quite a sight to see.

So my life is going to be filled with finding ways to challenge my smart daughter while keeping her rooted in stability of herself. She has got the walking down pat and proudly pulls herself up on whatever is nearby and then toddles on. She actively leaves the family room and moves down the cold tile floors towards her room or ours or the kitchen. She rarely stops in between unless she needs to steady herself. She does not go running into things as she has figured out how to make her legs slow down. She is very proud of herself and we are too. I am sure that pride will turn into exhaustion as she begins running away from us to explore!

She is only 13 1/2 months old. Wow. I am so proud of her amazing accomplishments.