29 words and counting (and much more!)

Just like everyone says, things sneak up on you with a baby/toddler. Rosa is talking a lot now, and I wish I had kept better track of how her language skills developed. I remember a while ago she could only say Dow (meow) and Oof Oof (woof woof). Now her words are spilling out. Not always repeatable or on command, but spilling out in little bursts of repetition. And this week has been the week that it has really turned on.

I decided I would try to make a list of all the words says (to some extent in order of frequency):
Mama, Dada, No (usually nononononono), eye (look out for the the finger poking you in the eye!), nuuu (nose), maaaa (mouth), shoes, hat, tsocks, daw (dog), bow (bow-wow), dow (meow, for kitty), keys, BABY (she says this so clearly), ball, jusss (juice), cheese (can be sliced, cream, cottage, etc.), nyeeens (beans), esshhh (fish), apple (again, perfect enunciation), ava (avacado), baaa (bath), cheeef (teeth), agua, moo (cow), moon, up, turtle, outside

The other thing she's been doing lately is requesting (demanding!) the Eency-Weency Spider song. She'll be eating lunch, and all of a sudden she refuses to eat for some reason and starts grabbing my hands. I've gotten to know what she wants now, but at first I couldn't figure it out right away, and she would put my index fingers together over and over until I would finally figure it out. Then I sing the song and we do all the motions together. We do this a couple times, then she can continue eating.

Ok - enough talk talk talk - now time for cute Rosa pictures.

Big girl with her own seat riding the Muni bus (24-Divisadero!)

The above picture on the bus was on the way to the Eureka Valley Rec Center. We played in the gym with the balls. At this age, they are easily distracted!

At Golden Gate Bridge with Dada and Mama

Cousin Steve came down from Portland for the weekend.

Looking cool in Dada's engineer hat

After Golden Gate Bridge, we went to the Exploratorium. Outside, they had a bubble exhibit!

There is nothing cuter than kids chasing bubbles!

That evening, we went up to the top of Twin Peaks

Rosa liked hanging out with Uncle Steve!

My old roommate Maddy and her daughter Caroline were in town, visiting Maddy's mom. Caroline is 3 months older than Rosa and actually first met Rosa when she was 4 days old! She was SO much bigger than Rosa then. Now 3 months isn't much difference. They were too cute together.

Big girls sitting on the couch

Not sure what's happening in this picture, but it kind of typifies the toddler energy!

We just got back from a whirlwing 3-day trip to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. Thanks to Peter and Terri for hosting us all again!

Rosa got to meet the family dog River!

Frank and Vicki gave this little Reindeer to Rosa that plays the Benny Hill song - I think I STILL have it stuck in my head.

Cara and Amanda were so wonderful to have around to watch / play with Rosa - I think I am going to adopt them so they can come live with us!

Back at home in SF - here's that kitchen table I wrote about last time.

Here's the view from our living room. The cool thing is that the tall building on the right is St. Luke's Hospital where Rosa was born.

Our own personal Sears photo background! (Yes, we're lying down in this picture)

Rosa in the cool vest from Grandma Judy