Dot's Spot

Dot loves to watch slideshows of her pictures, and there are a lot of her cousin J.T. (John III) in there. She doesn’t call anyone by name yet (except for the cats lol) but when she sees a picture of him she says, “TEE!”

We went to BJs for groceries. Dot ran around and it was very hard to keep up with her. She loved pointing at the price tags and saying the numbers. She ran by a boy and said, “EIGHT!” He had a big number 8 on his shirt. His mom was very impressed when she found out she was two. Dot also loves checkout lines when she can point at all the numbers above the registers. Up front, there was an optical sign that read ” Best Prices – on no line – bifocals.” I asked her about the first two words (on the second line), and she dutifully said “On” and “No”. (She shook her head, too.) Then she pointed to the last one and said, “line.” I had no idea she knew that one!

ETA: I had to call BJs later that day because I didn’t remember what the first word was. Apparently Dot can read better than the optical service technician who had no idea what I was talking about even when I directed her right towards the sign we were looking at. I actually had to find out when I went in a couple weeks later!

Dot has been a real sport about her Mama being sick from dental work and remaining happy watching her videos all week even though I feel guilty about it. Her new YBC videos came in tonight and I have to say I am disappointed with them so far. They are much too busy and fancy compared to the original YBC videos which are beautifully simple and use real video and photos instead of stuffed animals and fake backgrounds. I will have to send back the board books (they are perfect in size but have the slide-out cards which she tends to bend) and flap books (made out of paper and not Tyvek like the original ones) since by the time she is old enough to use them without destroying them she will be way beyond their level. All these WERE made for ages 3 and up, however, and I guess I was hoping for a continuation of the YBC program available for younger toddlers.

(Update: In spite of my lack of enthusiasm, Dot really loves the new Your Child Can Read videos and has learned a great deal from them in the past few months.)

Dot slept 11 hours last night, which is back to normal! (The first couple hours were with Madison curled up with her.) I hope we have at least a week of that before she starts waking up because she is getting close to walking. This morning she looked directly at me and said “Mama!” a few times. We took Dot to church; she flirted with everyone and was fairly quiet, too, with a few “mama”s thrown in. She fell asleep about 15 minutes before sacrament was over and stayed asleep until just before we got home. I think having church an hour earlier next year will actually work out better.

YBC Video A.M: Instead of watching with her, I put her in her high chair this morning so I could get some things done, and she actually REALLY paid attention to it, and watched it twice!

Balance Exercises: Glad I’ve been doing these. Our chiropractor is very pleased with how strong her back is!
Afternoon Yoga: Again, the chiro loves her range of movement on her arms and legs. I think her little yoga exercises are helping.
Play Mat (Hippo): She pulled on the sun toy and made the music (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) go off for the first time! We didn’t even know it DID that! And of course she spent more time playing with her feet!
For the first time, while in the carseat, she was really paying attention to the trees and other stuff outside as we drove by. All this attention to detail lately, starting right after I started showing her the color detailed BIT cards. I wonder if it is coincidence?
Tonight when we were reading her book, she reached out for it for the first time, grabbed the edge, and shut it, LOL. I guess she thought it was time for bed!