By the way, I have no idea how "come again another day" became "babu, babu, babu" to her. We've been getting outside between rainy spells but still, we'd like some sunshine please!
On the one day we had sunshine last week, Claire and I did some planting. I found Claire some great little Dora gardening gloves at Zellers, which she actually kept on for some time. She was an awesome little helper. She especially loves watering, even lifting the foliage at times to water right into the soil. I think our girl's got a tiny green thumb!
I think I mentioned in a previous post that Claire is fascinated by the mail. She loves playing "mail", and writes up truly lovely letters with great squigglies all across the page. I've even seen her flip the page over to continue the squigglies after reaching the bottom of a page. She also has a renewed interest in cooking with her kitchen. Fairly regularly, I'm told that "Supper's ready!" or at the very least, that "tea's ready!". It's cute to see her carry her make-believe tea to the table because she walks incredibly slowly and carefully with the cups.
Claire has been singing up a storm again lately. The other day, she was singing "Mama, Daddy" to the tune of Frere Jacques. Other favourites include Ba Ba Black Sheep, the ABCs, Ring around the Rosey, the Wheels on the Bus, Down by the Bay, the Hokey Pokey and some Kindermusik songs (Ahoy there mates!). I've got to find a way to be more stealthy with the camera, though, because whenever I try to record her singing, she stops.
Our Saskatchewan trip, and in particular her sleepovers at Baba and Dido's, seem to have matured Claire a lot. Ever since the trip, she hasn't cried when I left her at her nursery school. It seems she finally trusts that when I leave, I will indeed return. Claire's vocabularly also continued to grow in Saskatoon and has taken off even more now at home. Every day, she says more new words and puts new ones together into phrases and sentences. Her counting is coming along too. Before bed in Saskatoon, I'd hear her practising: "One, two, three, four, five, six, 9! Yay!" Despite skipping seven and eight, she apparently does understand that 8 is in the mix somehow because she often says "eight, nine, ten" (especially when pretending to dial the phone). She'll also say all the numbers correctly if we count with her.
Also while in Saskatoon, it occured to me that she didn't really know the words to the phrase, "I love you". Instead, when I asked her if she wanted to tell someone she loved them, she would go "ahahaha" in a singsong voice. So one night while getting ready for bed, I had her repeat after me again and again, "I ... love ... you". As soon as she had it down pat (albeit said very slowly), Paul called and she said it over the phone to him. I'm sure he loved that! Since then, she's also learned the phrase in Mandarin and has come to say the phrases in a more regular tempo. Here's a clip of Claire recording a short video for Daddy a week or two ago (this was before she picked up the tempo on "I love you"):
4 comments:
Very precious indeed! I can't believe how she articulates the words so well. Whenever she talks you can really hear every one. Ava loved the videos.
Missed you today.
I loved hearing her Mandarin words. What a special surprise for Paul to hear. Great picture of your little gardener too. She plays the part well! She's like a mini-Monica with the cooking, gardening, and mailing.
I'm happy to hear she's right back into her routines. It's always hard to know how they'll re-adjust after being away from home.
I feel for you, Claire, we've had yucky weather here too. I love her singing video, especially where she changes the words but I really love the video of her saying I love you to Paul, she's so clear and her Mandarin is amazing! That must have melted Paul's heart.
Wow, amazing! She's such a great talker! You can tell she totally understands what she's saying!!! She has matured so much since i last viewed the blog! Thanks for sharing and keeping us so up-to-date.
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