Point Your Fingers And Do The Twist

Jarrah suddenly seems a little different to me. For one thing, I get the feeling that she understands some English now. If I give her a simple command, like "Could you go find the other shoe and bring it to me?" she will do it, more often than not. It's kind of exciting, and also bizaare. How does anyone learn English that fast? But I guess she's been in the immersion course. ;)

She seems to be clueing in to what books are for. Previously, she enjoyed handing to them to us because we seemed interested in them, and it would make us say stuff in funny voices. Now, we've spotted her reading a book to herself a few times, making up some sort of story in her own language as she turns the pages.

She is also beginning to understand affection. That might sound odd, but I think she was sort of baffled at all our kissing and hugging until recently. When David and I kissed and she spotted us, she would stare, stone-faced. Now she smiles or claps, and a couple times has even offered her own face for a smooch right afterwards. Sometimes when I'm carrying her, she brings her forehead close to my mouth so I can kiss her, and then she does it again, and again. Sometimes she reaches for my hand (not like holding hands, more like fist-gripping) when we are reading a story or watching TV.

The one thing she is NOT getting is how to kiss. Even when we demonstrate, she only goes as far as bringing her lips close to us and making a small snorfling noise that is not much like a "smack!" We cracked up the other day when we thought we had successfully taught her how to blow a kiss with her palm, because she was indiscriminate about where the blowing originated--sometimes the top of her head, or her eye, or an ear. She's not getting the whole lip connection piece of the puzzle.

Yesterday at "Let's Make Music," she did "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" for the first time. It was so freakin' cute! I've shown her how it works countless times and she always stared at me like I was an idiot who didn't know better than to grab my own feet like that. But something suddenly clicked that it was a dance, and she got it. Her dancing, in general, has become more complex. She's added "turn yourself around", and something resembling chicken wings. I'm looking forward to dancing to the Wiggles with her. Right now she lets me "Rock-a-Bye Your Bear" all by myself. A shame, really--it's an awesome song.