Vocabulary Explosion and 16-month update

It seems that the daughter's vocabulary has suddenly exploded in the last couple weeks. She's always been very verbal, and a very quick learner - but now, you just say a word and she instantly repeats it. Just today, she learnt 4 new words - Tiger, Welcome, Neo (our friend's puppy lab) and Hello!

Some of the phrases she can say are: "This is", "nathi javu (in Gujarati)", "Miss you mumma", "Love you", "No bhua (water)", "aa shu (in Gujarati)", "Welcome", "Ha Ha Ha", etc. She can also join two words and respond back in a meaningful way, which I think is a significant milestone!

Some of the words she has learnt so far are:
Mumma, Pappa, Ruhi, NO, Star, Moon, Kite, Light, Clock, Banana, Grape, Plum, Tomato, Shoe, Wawa (for clothes), Nai Nai (for shower), Cow, Cup, Go, Come, Love, You, Yep, Tiger, Yoyo, Phone, Hello, Baba, Maasi, Mama, Ball, Dada, Naani, Nana, Done, Bhua, Mum Mum, Mamaiyo, Neo, Didi, Pooh, Pocoyo, Yum, Two, Boo Boo, Ha Ha Ha, etc.

I'm sure I have missed many words from the long list above. And these ones she can speak; she can understand a ton more.

One of the most enjoyable things is making her imitate animal sounds. She knows how to say the following animal sounds when prompted: Dog, Cat, Lion, Bear, Monkey, Cow, Octopus, Wolf, Fishie, Sheep, Snake, Bee, Horse, Chicken, Birdie, People (she says bleh bleh bleh when asked what do people say)!

She will say "Ha Ha Ha" when asked to be Happy, and say "umm umm" with a sad face when asked to be Sad :). She will also say "GO" after we say "Ready Steady".

She knows how to give a flying kissie, how to give a huggie, how to make her soft toys sleep, how to do vahali vahali, how to do a somersault, how to jump, how to sing, and how to dance, among loads of other things! She knows how to take a phone call and say hello. She finishes with "GOOOOO" when we say "Ready, Steady".....it's been SO much FUN lately!

We have been taking her for swim classes since she was 6 months old. She now understands how to blow bubbles on the surface, and also kicks her legs when we ask her to do so. She stays pretty still when made to float, and jumps into the water from the side of the pool with no fear whatsoever. On Thanksgiving day, we took her to a beach. She kept running to the ocean even as the huge waves were crashing onto the shore, and simply loved being at the beach. She even got her hands dirty with sand, and did not hesitate to taste some :P! I'm glad my baby is loving the water as much as I do!

The other thing she really enjoys is dancing! When we got back from the Mexico cruise last week, we were waiting at the cruise terminal for the hubby to pick us up. It was early morning, and the daughter was full of energy. There were tons of people waiting for their rides, but most of them looked tired, or sleepy, and sat there with sulked faces. The daughter ran around, and kept pausing when she heard an interesting piece of music being played, danced to it, and then started running again. While chasing her down, I noticed something remarkable. Every single person whose path she crossed had a smile on their face as they watched her dance. By the time she had made two rounds in the waiting area, the whole mood of the place had changed. You could feel it being happy and cheerful. I will remember this moment very fondly!

Slowly, we have started to potty train her. We do it in the mornings when she wakes up, and are trying to make her understand the concept. If things continue to progress that way they have so far, she will be potty trained soon. If not, it will just take a little bit of more time and effort from our end.

We face challenges as well, routinely. Meals is our biggest issue. Based on how the daughter eats, I decide whether my day went well or not :). It continues to be a huge stress factor for me, and I hope things improve somewhat on that front.

Motherhood has been extremely rewarding, and is making me a better person as each day goes by.