Happy Valentine's Day!

last weekend, reading in Ariel's bed

Dear Winnie,

Today you gave me the best valentine I've ever had: you began talking to me like a little girl. You didn't say just one or two random words, you repeated key words back to me as I spoke to you to answer my questions. You pointed upstairs or toward the door and said "go!" When I asked if you wanted more milk, you tried to repeat "milk" and ran to the fridge and tapped the door.

You reached around Ariel's neck tonight and hugged her and kissed her on her nose. You did the same with Mercury this morning when you caught him on the bed. So not only did you actually begin communicating with a vengeance, all of your practice loving on the pets culminated with a full-blown demonstration on Valentine's Day -of all days.

rediscovering the new music player from the bookstore...

jealous Maisie

Winnie is getting into it

Maisie's tail shadow

-hold a sec. I' ve almost got it.

yay! I told you.

immediately finding a questionable use for this new discovery

"brown chicken brown cow"

You spent the morning enjoying your first real trip to the children's book section of the bookstore, then you had a chance to get really close to two llamas, and then you spent your afternoon exploring the yard with Ariel and dancing around with your new "radio".


You failed to convince Ariel of the greatness of the radio.

Ariel narrowly makes her escape.

exploring by yourself-

you're not alone for long

So anyway, Sal, I told him to come fix this board on the back of the house or else...

.

and don't give me no lip...

communicating about the tight shoes

Last night we had company to celebrate one of the most taken-for-granted of holidays: Friday the 13th. You were a hoot and made the "o" face quite a bit. You've learned how to feed yourself pretty well, but you're using your left hand, so you might be the first lefthanded person in my family that I know of...

You can tell me if something is bothering you. You can climb up the stairs very expertly and shout "go!" every time you're at the bottom again. You can help me undress and dress you. You learned how to navigate your way up and down the concrete stairs at the back door today, too. And you're fascinated by them, so I won't have to worry so much that you'll tumble out that screen door and fall down those steps; your entire goal in life is to get to the stairs, so you'll be extra careful.

..

yep, oatmeal

ooh.....

the Ward clan at their home, January 09

...

Sue says, "what, me?" two weekends ago at Tanya's wedding shower number one. Sue and Mike on Saturday at Kara's home.

...

sorry it's sideways... learning how to use this thing... This is Winnie learning which button to push to play the music and then dancing around the yard with her "radio"...