All the things Renee can say

Renee's brain has hit hyper drive these days!  It's amazing how fast she picks up on things.  For instance, just a few weeks ago she could only show me her nose and her head (I'll ask her, "Where's Renee's nose?" and she points to, and sometimes up, her nose).  Now she can show me her nose, eyes, ears, mouth, teeth, tongue, belly button, toes and head.  And she has semi-words for almost all of them too.  I say semi-words because the last consonant is usually cut off , and if you aren't with her all the time you probably won't understand most of what she says.  Sometimes I don't even understand her, but it is a huge help that she usually points to whatever it is she's talking about.

Here are some of the words she can say and the Renee-speak translations:

I want - "me me!!"
mama - "mama"
dada - "dada"
dog - "dah!!"
no - "no, no, no, no, no!" (while pointing her finger at you)
baby - "beebee"
bottle - "baba"
book - "booh"
ball - "bah"
bird - "bur"
bubbles - "buboo"
shoe - "shzssoo"
sock - "saw"
snack - "nah"
up - "puh" (up backwards)
down - "dow"
banana - "babwa"
water - "wahwah"
apple - "appoo"
diaper - "papoo"
poopoo - "poopoo"
Renee - "Nee"
belly button - "bah boo"
head - "heh"
teeth - "nees"
hi - "hi"

And she understands SOOO much more than that.  It's amazing!  I can tell her, "go show it to Daddy," and she'll walk around the house until she finds Jeff, then she proudly holds up whatever it was that she was supposed to show him.  It's so cute.

Oh, she can also tell you what the following animals say: dog ("oof, oof"), cat ("meeeeah"), cow ("moooo"), lion ("rarrr"), chicken ("dukadukawww"), sheep ("baa, baa") and horse ("neh, neh").  And she is really good at blowing kisses and waving bye-bye.  We always get a lot of attention for that one :D

It is so fun to watch her learn all these new things and to watch how happy she gets when we understand her and respond appropriately.   Of course she gets equally frustrated when we just don't know what she's trying to say.  It's a steep learning curve for all of us!!  

Our Little Toddler

Renee has been in the young toddler room at her daycare for about 6 weeks now, and she LOVES it!!  She barely even says goodbye to me some mornings when I drop her off.  She'll just brush me off as I'm trying to give her a hug and kiss, it's like she's saying, "yeah, whatever Mom, I'll see you later."

The teachers keep the kids really busy with tons of fun toddler friendly activities.  They read books, sing songs, play outside on the play structure or with the water table, go on buggy rides around campus, and they do lots of art projects and science experiments (i.e. mixing two colored liquids together to get a third color).

They keep the kids on a schedule of snack times, lunch, nap time and play times and stick to it as close as they can everyday.  They are even able to get all 16 one year olds to take a nap at the same time.  And they are not in cribs anymore, they are on cots - amazing!!!  I can barely get Renee to take a nap when we're home on the weekends, and I only have her to deal with.

There are four teachers in the toddler room, and each one is primarily responsible for four of the kids, but they all share duties of course and mostly do things as a whole group.  Renee's primary teacher is Miss Paula and she sends home great reports everyday of how Renee's day went, I love reading them.  Here's an example from the other day:

And in case you are having trouble reading the tiny scanned image of cursive writing here is what Paula wrote:

I have been having such a great time with Renee!  Her personality is just really coming out! She's so crazy fun to work with!  She's always up for whatever we're doing... and that giggle!!  It's just non stop!!  It makes me feel good to know that she is so happy and content here in the toddler room! :D  Almost every song we sing... she giggles her way through it!  Paula 

Paula is great at always writing something positive about Renee's day.  She is usually more specific about activities Renee enjoyed, but this one just warmed my heart.  It's so nice to know that Renee is happy at daycare!

And here are some pictures Paula emailed us of our little cutie pie!

Renee at daycare during snack time.

These pictures made our day!  Our happy little toddler, so cute :D