How does she do it?

The rate of Sally's development at the moment is just extraordinary. She seems to learn up a new word every day, and it's just amazing how many skills she has picked up since Christmas: climbing the stairs, stacking the rings on the post, sorting some shapes in the shape muddler... Incredible.

Most recently I have taught her how to drink from her Doidy cup independently. With occasional mishaps she can now pick it up by both handles and drink from it completely by herself. The only two dangers are that if you are not quick off the mark to rescue her she loses concentration, misses her mouth and tips it straight down her neck... And if she's got that bit right when she's finished drinking she'll sometimes tip it so far back in the other direction that she risks throwing the water out of the other side!

She is also learning how to take off her clothes. We now get her to take off her socks herself(she's been able to do it for ages - it suddenly struck me that we should let her do it before her bath!) And now we take her arms out of her top and vest for her and then she pulls it off over her head herself.

The other thing I thought I should record is how many words she knows and uses regularly. I suppose given my history I did think she'd be pretty verbal, but it does seem that she is doing well! I counted up over the weekend and got to about 25 words that she knows, understands and uses correctly in context. Here is that list as it stands:

Olives
Cheese
Shreddies
Duck
Cheebies
Buloo
Tea
Teeth
Mouth
Ears
Hair
Keys
Fish
Zip
Home
Out
Apple
Down
Please
Owls
Cat
Hat
Kiss
Nice
Car

There are many many more that she parrots back at us if we say them, but they don't count yet. Her understanding seems to be increasing again as well and quite unexpectedly the other day Sam told her to hold her arms up - and she did. She also put the toilet roll back on the shelf when told to.

I can see her brain starting to make connections as well. She knows the word 'duck' from her light-up duck in the bath. Then she found my fluffy cuddly duck - which is a completely different shape, like a duck lying down - and announced "duck". Today, she found a yellow duck glove puppet at a friends house and again got it right! She's barely seen a mouse, although she now knows mice go 'eek' or 'squeak' if she's feeling clever, and yet when she saw the mouse coat hooks in our bedroom she went 'EEK!' with great enthusiasm. Again at a friend's today she found a picture of a cow in a book and said 'Moo!'.

Despite the trantrums and the clinginess (she's all about Mummy at the moment) I think this is definitely the best age so far. There's so much going on in her upstairs its a pleasure to watch.