First words

Cora has a few words that she says...or perhaps we should call them sounds that she consistently says for the same things and we recognize what she means.

"Hi" is pretty easy to understand. She usually says it when she holds up her play phone to her ear, or sometimes just her hand if she sees me talking on the phone. She has also started waving and saying "hi" to strangers when we're running errands. It's so cute!

"Mama", "Mom", "Dada" are pretty regular sounds we hear.

"Da-dee" seems to be doggie, or perhaps any animal...

"Buh" is book (sounds like book with out the "k" sound)

"Ba" is ball or blanket, whichever she is pointing or looking at.

"Up" seems to refer to wanting help with something, and often when she wants to be lifted up to turn the light on and off. She loves to play with the light switches - good cause and effect learning.

"Aahh-da" is "all done" when she's done eating. She signs the ASL sign for all done when she says it, too. It is just so sweet!

"Aaahh-meh" is amen. We've been folding Cora's hands and saying a quick prayer with her before meals. Now when we say "let's pray" she folds her hands (well, clasps them) and sometimes bows her head...we didn't try to teach her that! Then when we say amen she says "aahh-meh". So cute.

"Brrr" when it's cold out.

"Jz" is juice.

"Ba-ba" is her attempt at saying bye-bye which she's just started doing.

She also says a couple animal sounds if we do it first: monkey ("ah" with her mouth wide open - it's supposed to be "oo-oo-oo-ah-ah" but she only says "ah" - there is a picture of Curious George on her shampoo bottle which she loves to look at and will say "Ah" on her own when I ask what a monkey says), elephant (brrr, kinda like a trumpet, but it sounds just like when she says "brr" as in "it's cold out") and bear (rauw, rauw) sounds.

Here's a quick Youtube clip of Cora saying juice. It wasn't one of the clearest times, but you get the idea.

On the walking front: Cora is done crawling as of a week ago! She walks very well all over the place and when she falls over she can stand back up on her own. It's really fun to see her walking all over the place and I feel better that she's up off the ground and it's cleaner than crawling!

Last weekend's retreat was awesome and I promise I'll post some pictures from that soon. Cora stayed at Brad's parents' house for the weekend and everything went wonderfully. She is obviously comfortable and happy with them and we've spent the night a number of times at their house so I think that helped it go smoothly. It also helped keep my mind at ease while we were away. I missed her, but it was wonderful to be able to focus on the students during the retreat and not be running after Cora, keeping her out of their games, feeding her and trying to get nap times and bedtimes in the midst of a dozen teenagers in the cabin! I was really able to BE with the students and give them my full attention. I really enjoyed that! More about the retreat later.