Another Moment on the Swing

It's still very busy around here. Not everything is unboxed yet--at home or at my office--and the normal new job/new city/new home transitions are going on. But Aletheia appears to have adjusted well. She's sleeping through the night again, and she has several new little friends at church. So all is good.

We're definitely moving into toddlerdom. She's learning how to object, and occasionally there's a mini-tantrum, although she's just as likely to take a move from the civil disobedience playbook and go limp. But those are rare occurrences. She's still the most good-natured kid I know.

She's reached the stage where she thinks it is great fun to do for mommy and daddy what they have been doing for her. She'll feed me, brush my hair, tickle me. It's a lot of fun. And her vocabulary seems to grow every day. Recently she's mastered light, shoes, socks, shirt, and lady. She really likes green beans, but for the moment she calls them "bean beans," which somehow is about the funnest thing I've ever heard. She had green beans tonight, and I couldn't stop laughing, which just encouraged her. "Bean beans! Bean beans! Bean beans!" she chanted, giggling all the while. And I got one of her adorable squinty-eyed smiles.

She also knows the Sesame Street character Elmo, although we don't know how, since she never watches TV. But he's on her diapers, and on a couple of toys. And she just loves him. But she can't quite pronounce his name right. "Melmo! Melmo!"

Mommy bought her a book with an Elmo puppet, and when the Elmo puppet is talking to her, she's mesmerized. "Can you clap, Aletheia?" And she clap, clap, claps, wide-eyed, in wonder. "Can you rub your tummy?" Rub, rub, rub. "Can I get a kiss?" She leans in and kisses Elmo on the cheek, which she won't do for mommy or daddy yet. But that's okay, too.