Annie's New Skills & Word Explosion

There are a million things (especially new words) that Annie has been a part of these days! It's so much that I had to create a whole post about them! But let's start with the "birdie" sign, an old favorite . . .
Strange story here: We were in the parking lot of Sam's Club, and suddenly we were surrounded by seagulls and Annie started signing "birdie" frantically as the birds kind of divebombed us. (And, yes, I actually did think of Hitchcock's The Birds for a moment.) Seagulls?!? It was so strange that I took pictures. Annie was completely spellbound to see these large birds flying so very close.


Now on to new skills. Annie can now use a fork and a spoon! It's rough, and she doesn't always get food every time, but she's trying so very desperately. The first time she did it, we clapped so loud that she looked at us as if we were nuts!

Now for the words. Recently, Annie has added "neigh" and "nah" to her animal sounds collection (and her "meow," which first sounded more like "moo," is becoming more pronounced). Quite simply, though, Annie tries every single word that we ask her to try. Recently, she has added her own name: Annie ("nuh-nuh"), turtle ("tur"), diaper ("popper"), "Yay!," "Doll," squirrel ("whoa"), "Book," cup ("pup"), car ("ka"), Mamma's milk ("ma-ma-ma"), "up," "Dog," Froggie ("goggie"), and about a hundred more that I'm forgetting. Annie has even started "counting," which just involves making "ah, . . . uh, . . . nah!" sounds with the proper infections as she points to things. : ) Perhaps even more exciting has been a few added sentences like a slurred "go in car." What a smartie! [The only strange addition is that Annie now calls Cherry Chat Chat "Sssssssssss." Have NO idea why. Any ideas?]

Now for signing. Another fun thing going on is that now Annie signs "baby" when we are looking at her picture board (which contains pictures of each family member holding Annie as a baby). And no matter when it is, when we're walking by it, Annie always says "Pappa"! Here is the other amazing thing: Annie has mastered the "please" and "thank you" signs, and uses them appropriately. Please has been going on for a while. As for "thank you," the sign looks so much like a blown kiss (hand to chin and then down) that for weeks we thought she was just blowing a kiss, . . . and then tonight we realized that she was saying "thank you" all of those times!!! So polite!!!

Can you tell this is such an exciting time for us these days?!?