Questions and Answers

So the other night, I put Willa to bed and went downstairs. I turned on the monitor and could hear her drifting off to sleep as she drank her sippy cup of water, or so I thought. After about 15 minutes, I hear:

"Hi, how are you, Lookaaas (Luke, who is Markus' brother)? I'm fine. Yeaaaahhhh. Loookaaaas. Loooooookaaaaaas. Loookaaaas."

And on she went. I think she sang happy birthday in there, too. She went on for at least 5 minutes, talking to herself and calling for her uncle Luke.

We've been teaching her questions and answers, or ways to respond. Please/Thank you/You're welcome. How are you/I'm fine. Why/Because. I love you, Willa/I love you, Mommy. See you later/see ya lada. She's apparently figured out the concept, based on the exchange I heard the other night. Sometimes she'll ask "why XXX" and then immediately say, "Because". Saves me some time!

She loves talking on the phone and often can't wait for the how are you part so she can answer.

Markus' dad arrived for a visit on Friday, so Willa's been enjoying her visit with "Ireland Pop-Pop". Tonight, she followed him around saying "Eyelin Pop-Pop, what doing?" Oh, "what doing" is her new question. We hear that so much more than why. I'm changing her diaper - "what doooing?" "Changing your diaper." "Why?" "Because you peed in it." "Yeaaah." Then I start putting Butt Paste on. "What doooing?" "Putting Butt Paste on." "Bu Pees."

Markus started telling Willa she's nosy since she's always asking questions, so now she walks around saying she's "noazee".

Today, we went to the Please Touch Museum. Luke works there and was on-duty today so he arranged for tickets for us. How nice! We rode the carousel and Willa said the whole time, "I don't like it. Git off Mommy." Then when it was over and we got off, she cried because she wanted to go back on. Indecisive like her mother.

She started combining sentences in the last few days.

"I don't like it Mommy. Take it."
"Grape fell. Git it Mommy. Pick it up Mommy."
"Climb up Willa's new bed. Lay down."
"No this music, Daddy. Pretty singing, please." Pretty singing = opera to Willa. She calls opera "opalawa". Then she claps if it's a live version of a song and the applause is heard on the air. It's funny.

And so many more I can't think of at the moment.

Oh, she's up to 18 or 19 with the counting, and can go to 20 in French (with some help)! She's got red, orange, green, blue, pink, and yellow down pat. Sometimes knows purple. The fact that we buy obnoxiously bright colored shoes for her (i.e., bright orange) has helped her learn her colors (go get your ORANGE shoes, Willa). She knows circles, and loves to draw them. She makes circle after circle after circle when she draws at her easel. Tonight, I wrote her name (and of course, I drew a circle around it). Then she started making all these lines with the marker (she had temporarily forgotten about circles) and said W-i-j-k-l-l-l and then I don't remember, but a bunch more letters and straight lines on the paper. And then, "I did it!" She was so proud that she, ahem, wrote her name.

I know this may not be as fascinating to our faithful blog readers (Mom...um, Aunt Sue, do you still check?), but I wanted to try to capture more of what Willa's saying and doing. Now that she repeats almost any word, it's impossible to keep track. So, no pictures tonight. Just words. Trying to make sure we don't forget the things that make us smile.