Dot had her “phone” to help keep her quiet while I had an ultrasound today. The technician was so impressed with it she will be getting one for her 4-year-old granddaughter.
This is a wonderful product. This is the only thing that even comes close to what Dot needed without spending a couple hundred dollars. She is a toddler after all, and if she does manage to break it, it isn’t incredibly expensive to replace. Unfortunately the portable DVD players, although cheap, aren’t sturdy enough to protect the disc from scratches when she pounces onto the unit. This one is compatible with her DVDs and videos, can connect to the computer for updates, and has an external speaker. It can also view pictures and music, and has a slot for a mini SD card in case I want to load up a couple of movies in the future. The bonus was that it came with a rubber case inside the box! Dot likes to take it off, but at least it has one. She can watch the home movies of herself on it, too, so I can reclaim my own phone. It has been wonderful when she needs to be quiet while at the doctor’s office or other public place.
It has been an interesting and full year for all of us, largely due to Dot getting bigger and learning so much. She is 21 months old now, and has recently started her terrible twos! Really, though, she is a generally sweet, kind, active, and intelligent little girl. She likes to share everything, can read well over 100 words (and can sign most of them), is starting to say some words, and loves to help out around the house. She currently helps put laundry into the dryer, restock the fridge with water bottles, and throws her diapers away. She can also identify all of her colors, twenty basic shapes, knows most of the alphabet, can find Middle C and a few other notes on the piano, and can complete simple puzzles. She has had quite an exciting year of learning about her world.
Dot got up on the piano bench and kept saying, “Ball! Ball!” and doing the sign for ball. I kept asking her where the ball was so she pointed. Sure enough, the name on the front of the piano says, “Kimball”.
Dot was getting some words from Daddy using a magnetic drawing board. I’d been teaching her the sign for piano, but hadn’t really shown her the word yet. So he showed it to her, and she went over to the piano. Then I asked her to play middle C, and she hit a couple of notes until she got down to middle C, played it a few times, and smiled up at us. (I have been working with developing her perfect pitch since she was very tiny.) Then she showed us the sign for piano. She repeated the Middle C trick for Grandma a few minutes later, but this time she knew what the word piano was and went to it before we could say the word. She is learning very fast, and I need to make up some new flash cards for her. The same old words just aren’t enough anymore!
