Monday, June 18, 2007
Words, Signs, Directions
These are Pippa's words right now:
Mamama, Dada, Papa (this makes rare appearances), Hi, Bye-bye, Bippa, Muh, Bah, Dah, Nana, Buh, Mmmuh, Nigh-nigh, Nuhnuhnuhnuhnuhnuhnuh, Puh (rarely appears).
What? You can't understand them? Here are the translations in order:
Mama (I don't know why this rates 3 syllables), Dada, Papa, Hi, Bye, Pippa, More, Bird, Dog, Banana, Book, Milk, Night-night (always accompanied w/ a very cute wave), No, Up.
She also makes a kissing noise when you ask for a kiss. Her signs are waving hi and bye, signing for 'more' (points to hand), 'milk' (sticks finger in mouth like straw), and 'food' (taps finger in mouth). These last three are pretty interchangeable for her which makes it harder to figure out what she wants.
She can follow lots of easy directions, including when we tell her to wave, clap her hands, say something (like hi or bye), dance, put her elephant and binky in her crib, lift her arms up, give kisses, pat-pat (this is supposed to be gently petting the dogs but can turn into some serious banging -- luckily the dogs don't care), and to put an object she's holding into something else (like put the block in the bucket).
Mamama, Dada, Papa (this makes rare appearances), Hi, Bye-bye, Bippa, Muh, Bah, Dah, Nana, Buh, Mmmuh, Nigh-nigh, Nuhnuhnuhnuhnuhnuhnuh, Puh (rarely appears).
What? You can't understand them? Here are the translations in order:
Mama (I don't know why this rates 3 syllables), Dada, Papa, Hi, Bye, Pippa, More, Bird, Dog, Banana, Book, Milk, Night-night (always accompanied w/ a very cute wave), No, Up.
She also makes a kissing noise when you ask for a kiss. Her signs are waving hi and bye, signing for 'more' (points to hand), 'milk' (sticks finger in mouth like straw), and 'food' (taps finger in mouth). These last three are pretty interchangeable for her which makes it harder to figure out what she wants.
She can follow lots of easy directions, including when we tell her to wave, clap her hands, say something (like hi or bye), dance, put her elephant and binky in her crib, lift her arms up, give kisses, pat-pat (this is supposed to be gently petting the dogs but can turn into some serious banging -- luckily the dogs don't care), and to put an object she's holding into something else (like put the block in the bucket).
Labels: pippa
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Grandma; More; Doc Appt
Yesterday, Pippa and I went to the museum with our friend Gillian and her twins. There were approximately 10,000 school kids there. One ten-year-old boy came up to me and said "Are you her Grandma?" Thinking I must have misheard him, I asked him to repeat himself -- "Are you her Grandma?" "No, I'm her Mama" I replied. "Her Mama?!?" he said incredulously, looking me up and down and obviously not believing me. Realizing that "her mama" might have different connotations to an inner city kid, I said "yes, I'm her Mother". He still did not believe me, and wandered off shaking his head. I've decided to take it as a social comment on family configurations he's familiar with, rather than on how I was looking today.
Later, in the grocery store, we toured the produce department and Pippa made the "more" sign at all the veggies and fruit she knew. "More" has many meanings for Pippa -- more of a particular food, more of an undesignated food (this can be very tough to figure out), and also that she's hungry in particular. It's the first time she's made the sign in a store for specific foods (the bananas and grapes got the most insistent signing). Happily, she dropped signing when we got to the aisles, except when we got to the cereal aisle and the Cheerio box but was again easily distracted (tickling works wonders).
Pippa had her one-year doctor's appointment yesterday and is perfectly healthy. She's 22 lbs 11 ounces (85th percentile), 29.75 inches tall (65th percentile, which we think is an under-measurement), and was 95th percentile for head size. Yup, she's still a big 'un. We expressed mild concern that she seems to be lagging in her 'gross motor' skills (walking, ball throwing, block stacking, etc) and the doctor said since she is "so very advanced" in her language skills we shouldn't worry. Good news :) To that end she's started making up her own signs for things -- the sign for milk is a finger pointing to her mouth. She only does it when she wants milk and not food or water. I think it's because we use a cup with a straw for milk and never use that cup for anything else or put milk in anything else. I'm not sure if she'll continue making up signs but it's pretty cute, even though it does make it challenging at first to figure out what she wants :)
Enough chitchat. Pictures:
Hey, pay attention!
Pippa's mad stair-climbing skills.
This is Pippa dancing. Sad, isn't it?
Pippa loves her big cousin Rian.
She's crying in almost every other photo of her in her helmet.
Likewise, these are the only happy pictures of her in her bike trailer. This was before Papa took her out. Then she realized she wasn't too keen on the whole idea.
Sadly, there is no sound with this picture -- you miss her actually reading herself this book making babbling sounds and pointing things out on the page. Notice the book is upside down. She is, however, turning the pages in the proper direction.
At the museum playing with the outdoor drum set.
In the butterfly house. Which, for you zoologists, are all birds ("buh") not dogs.
Later, in the grocery store, we toured the produce department and Pippa made the "more" sign at all the veggies and fruit she knew. "More" has many meanings for Pippa -- more of a particular food, more of an undesignated food (this can be very tough to figure out), and also that she's hungry in particular. It's the first time she's made the sign in a store for specific foods (the bananas and grapes got the most insistent signing). Happily, she dropped signing when we got to the aisles, except when we got to the cereal aisle and the Cheerio box but was again easily distracted (tickling works wonders).
Pippa had her one-year doctor's appointment yesterday and is perfectly healthy. She's 22 lbs 11 ounces (85th percentile), 29.75 inches tall (65th percentile, which we think is an under-measurement), and was 95th percentile for head size. Yup, she's still a big 'un. We expressed mild concern that she seems to be lagging in her 'gross motor' skills (walking, ball throwing, block stacking, etc) and the doctor said since she is "so very advanced" in her language skills we shouldn't worry. Good news :) To that end she's started making up her own signs for things -- the sign for milk is a finger pointing to her mouth. She only does it when she wants milk and not food or water. I think it's because we use a cup with a straw for milk and never use that cup for anything else or put milk in anything else. I'm not sure if she'll continue making up signs but it's pretty cute, even though it does make it challenging at first to figure out what she wants :)
Enough chitchat. Pictures:
Hey, pay attention!
Pippa's mad stair-climbing skills.
This is Pippa dancing. Sad, isn't it?
Pippa loves her big cousin Rian.
She's crying in almost every other photo of her in her helmet.
Likewise, these are the only happy pictures of her in her bike trailer. This was before Papa took her out. Then she realized she wasn't too keen on the whole idea.
Sadly, there is no sound with this picture -- you miss her actually reading herself this book making babbling sounds and pointing things out on the page. Notice the book is upside down. She is, however, turning the pages in the proper direction.
At the museum playing with the outdoor drum set.
In the butterfly house. Which, for you zoologists, are all birds ("buh") not dogs.Labels: pippa
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
College Savings
We just joined this service called UPromise that lets us save for Pippa's college education. It hooks our credit cards, grocery cards, pharmacy cards, and online purchases thru their website (they've got lots of coupons and deals for online shopping in every type of category), and when we make 'qualifying' purchases the brand company adds some money to our 529 account for Pippa's college fund. The cool thing is friends and family can hook all of their cards and purchases to our account, too. If you're interested in sending Pippa to college (listen, you gotta plan ahead these days), send me an email at emily dot jacksonsanborn at gmail dot com (that email address is all spelled out so those darned spammers don't get me, but you know what an email address should look like). Then I'll send you an email invite that'll hook you up to Pippa's account (which will be shared by Pippa and Rowan once she makes her grand appearance). Not to rob our kids of savings, but in the interest of full disclosure, for those of you who are planning on having kids, you can set up an account for your future kids, too, at www.upromise.com.
