I Will Never Catch Up!

Carson has been doing so much new stuff lately, I'm not sure how I'll ever blog about it all.  It seems like there are long periods where not much new is going on with her, and then WHAM!  All of a sudden, she's this sponge, soaking up everything and putting it to use and I can barely keep up.  So mostly, I just sit back and watch her do these super-cool things.

It is amazing to me to feel like I am sitting there actually witnessing another human being discovering some of the fundamental truths we use daily for the rest of our lives.  Here's what I mean:

I get to watch her manipulate blocks or balls until she accidentally hits them together and realizes they make a sound.  Here, she's so proud of herself for holding both of them.

Then I gaze on, as she figures out how to hit them together repeatedly and make the same sound.  And finally, she starts picking up other objects and noticing how the sound changes as different objects are banged against one another.  She realizes that stuffed toys are boring in this activity and make no noise.  Then it occurs to her that objects with rattles inside make extra noise when they are whacked together.  For a few days, she went around hitting things like a maniac, testing everything she could pick up.

Another of my favorites was when she recently realized that everyone has the same body parts--ears (which she loves to look at on each side of your head), toes (her fave), tongue (my fave) 

She never gets tired of looking at these same body parts over and over again, solidifying their images and the concept of their presence on everyone in her little mind.

It is so engrossing and rewarding to me to watch her learn--I swear I am addicted to it.  Honestly, it's the main reason I teach:  that "light bulb" moment, when a student suddenly understands something important--not important to the curriculum (although that's cool too) but important to LIFE.  Maybe we're reading a book set in Vietnam, and they begin to understand ways the Vietnam War was similar to the war in Iraq.  Or they can make connections between the Holocaust and the Civil Rights movement--or even better, between the Holocaust and what's going on now with Muslims and Hispanics in America.  Then we get to talk about how we as individuals can make a difference before prejudice takes over, like it did in Germany.  I just can't get enough of it.  The human brain is amazing.  And having a front-row seat to one child's journey through every major discovery they will make--it's like crack to me (I realize I won't actually be present for every single thing she learns, but don't get picky).

C has also been getting more verbal lately.  She has started making a few more sounds and trying to control and use them.  Whining is one of them, which Brandon and I adore.  But what's really fun is she's trying to say actual words, many of which begin and end with "d."  Her repertoire of sounds lacks some of the subtle nuances of English phoentics...or all of them.  Whatever.  Her first non-dada word is "that" (pronounced "dat"), and she says it pretty often.  She points at things and says, "dat," usually seeming to want to know the word for them. So we spend a lot of our days lately naming objects, places, ideas, and her preferred topic of conversation--animals.  She tries to say dog (which sounds like the real word, only it ends in d instead of g) and at the doctor's office for her 9-month check-up (oh my GOSH how will I ever catch up on blogging???), they had a big fish tank, and she kept trying to say fish (which came out as "shhhhhh").  Too fun.

She has figured out that she can not only look through her mailbox toy to see what's behind it, but she can also stick her hand through to grab things on the other side.  She thinks this is hilarious, even though these pictures don't look like it!

She has also started generalizing ideas more.
I put a headband on her head yesterday, and she immediately pointed up at her hats, realizing they go on her head too.
Or we were looking at a picture book tonight, and when we got to the page with the dog on it, she said, "Dod," then looked and stared at Moe, then back at the picture, then at him again.  I am dying to know at what point their brain becomes able to see a picture of one dog and realize it's the same animal as a completely different color/shape/size dog.  Fascinating!
 
She plays "chase" with Brandon every day now.  She'll crawl around on the den floor, and then stop and turn to look at him with a big grin (or sometimes intentionally go somewhere she's not supposed to, like the TV stand), waiting for him to come get her.  Then she'll squeal with delight as he chases after her.

And while I'm just spitting out random information, here are her 9-mont stats:
Weight: 18.1 pounds
Length: 27 inches
Both are around the 30th percentile for her age.
 
There is so much more to post about:  the songs she "sings," learning about belly buttons from Lila, the fort, and one of her biggest recent achievements deserves a post of its own, so I'm working on it and will get it up asap.  But for now, I'm going to post this.  Because I'm sure by the morning, there will just be something else new to add to the list!