Calla Update

Hoping to find a few moments to compose another one of my lengthy "Calla Updates" as it's been about three months since the last one!

A lot has happened in those months, too! Calla had her 18 month check up (at 19 months, actually) recently, where we learned she was a few ounces short of 30 pounds, and 35 1/2 inches tall. Healthy and happy as always.

She continues to enjoy learning new things. Since she knows the alphabet, we've begun helping her learn some phonics. Also, I'm teaching her to recognize a few words: Calla, book, Daddy. She's really knows shapes well now. And she knows colors, but we're introducing the more exotic colors to her lately. Calla talks non-stop and has a huge vocabulary, but she still really enjoys signing so we continue to learn new signs. We've learned a lot of color and food signs most recently.

Today was the first day she counted over ten. She just did it out of the blue! Counted up to fourteen. Not only can she recite the numbers in order, she is also beginning to "get" the concept of number. She will sometimes announce that she has "two boots" or "three bears" for example.

I suppose her imagination is really developing these days. She still loves to play her game where she shares imaginary food (usually cookies!) with us. Now she has a new game she plays with her dad. They lie down on the playroom floor and look out the glass door up into the branches of a big tree in our backyard and name all the weird animals that they can "see" in the tree. "Oh look, a monkey!" "A cow!" I love it when they play that game. So cute!

She also loves to play with puzzles. I start the corners of her 12-piece jigsaw puzzles for her. Then she decides where the pieces should go. She can't quite fit the pieces in on her own, although she will try. I help with that. She also loves taking the pieces apart when we're finished so we can put it back together again. And again. And again. Calla's also enjoys playing with her dolls and her puppets. She never tires of the flashlight game, where we shine a flashlight on her to cast her shadow on a wall. We move the flashlight to make the shadow grow tall and shrink small. She loves it!

Calla loves music. She's already better at getting lyrics correct while singing along to songs than her father! Sometimes she sings little songs on her own. Very sweet. She is a total Beatlemaniac. Obsessed with the Beatles. Daily, we watch a Beatles YouTube playlist I made for her. She knows all the Beatles' names. She sings along with the songs. At naptime and bedtime, I've started playing a slow-song Beatles playlist for her as she drifts off to sleep. If she wakes and it's not playing, she will ask "Where Beatles song go?" :) I've decided she's obviously a reincarnation of one of those crazed, screaming Beatles fans of the early sixties.

If you love the Beatles like Calla, maybe you'll enjoy Calla's Beatles playlist: