Avery and I watched about 30 minutes of the Animal Planet together this afternoon. I've slowly been easing my strict no-TV rule. Not for any particular reason other than I've been loosening my grip on things in general. I had forgotten until today that Avery's doc said TV was OK (in small amounts, of course) as long as you watch it with the kids. I don't think I got why at the time, but two things have made me realize why this is so. First, I saw the article online that said babies who watch a lot of TV tend to develop language skills more slowly. In that article, it noted that it was likely less about TV and more about the fact that when the TV is on, there is often less conversation between adult and child. This makes logical sense to me. Second, as we were watching Animal Planet together, Avery was identifying the various animals she saw, or identifying what they were doing. If the lion was eating, she'd do the eat sign and I'd confirm that the lion was indeed eating. Or she'd say "cat" and do the sign for cat. Interestingly, she always thought the female lion is a dog, despite me saying, "No, it's not a dog, it's a cat. A big cat called a lion," about 50 times in the span of 15 minutes. However, she always recognized the male lion as a lion. The mane clearly makes a big difference for her. When I explained that cubs are baby lions and she would sign baby and then roar like a lion.
I also learned something I wouldn't have learned in Portland (oh sweet TiVo God, I thank thee!): Avery does not like commercials. Everytime the break would start, she would say, "No, no." I would explain it was a commercial and we'd have to wait for the show to resume. Eventually I found that muting the commercials and then identifing what we were watching (e.g. "That's a man. That's a man and a woman." etc), she was more tolerant of the commercial time.
Also, she has watched bits of Finding Nemo (back home - we didn't bring any DVDs for her) maybe 4-5 times. Anywhere from 5-20 minutes per viewing. After the first viewing, she would say "mo, mo?" for Nemo. It's possible she's saying remote knowing I use the remote to turn on Nemo, but either way the point is she remembered immediately.
In language development, she's regularly stringing two words together - at least for phrases we use commonly. The main one that comes to mind is when she wants up. She knows her best shot at a positive response is to say please, so she comes over and says, "Peeeaass?" I'd say, "You want up? Are you sure?" and she'd answer, "Ye-ah." Anyway, the end result is that she now comes and says, "Peeeeaas. Y-eh-ssss." It's a very exaggerated yes since I've been emphasizing the s in an effort to convert yeah to yes. She also is quite efficient in answering my are-you-sure question before I ask it.
Oh, the other word she picked up immediately is cookie. I've offered her bites of cookies and things before, but she has mostly turned up her nose at them. We bought these chocolate cookies down here and she loves them. She runs over to the cabinet in which we keep them and says, "Cookie, cookie!" We have also let her have some potato chips. She totally loves those, too. If she spies the bag, there's no stopping her insistence at getting some chips.
Happily, she now accurately identifies whether she needs a diaper change due to pee or poo. She comes up immediately after she's pooed (this is new because she's never really minded having poo in her diaper), asks to be changed using the sign, we ask, "Did you pee or poo?" and she'll answer. So far, she's been correct everytime I've asked the question (see footnote 1, then footnote 2 for an update on this fascinating story). She also runs up to the toilet and says, "Peeeeeee!" She doesn't want to go on the potty - though she's not scared to sit on it for a bit. I think she's just letting me know she associates the toilet and pee.
Finally, during the time we've been down here, she has learned how to take off her diaper. This can't be good.
Footnote 1 - dang it, she's just back with her first incorrect response - ah well, can't win 'em all
Footnote 2 - wait! she came to me about 2 minutes after D changed her diaper and did change again and indicated poo and she pooed! could she have been letting us know she was going to go? Oh man, that is just too awesome to think about
