20 months and full of it

Uma is talking up a storm. She's thrilled that she can now state everything that belongs to her- "Uma chair, Uma car, Uma house,Uma belly, Uma Mama". She has learned that the best way to get what she wants is not to scream "UMA JUICY! UMA JUICY! UMA JUICY!" but rather to cock her head while saying very softly "Mama. juicy please?" while rubbing her chest to sign and emphasize the please. It works. She definitely needs to be reminded to soften her tone, but this girl is no fool.

She loves to toast with everyone who has a drink as well, "Cheers! Cheers! Cheers!" We were at an art opening recently where she worked the entire room over.

Throughout the day it's "Uma hungry", "Uma thirsty", and her favorite, "Uma poop" (which means that she does poop, not necessarily at that moment though).The other night, she named every person she knew and asked if they poop, "Jackson poop? Zeke poop? ShiShi poop?..."
She is a constant mockingbird, in the last weeks echoing me twice when I cursed- certainly a wake up call for me.

She is finally getting over that walking pneumonia. It's been almost a full month of her coughing, gasping, and puking but now she only has a few episodes a day. The mountains of laundry I've done this month have been surreal. We've both had multiple costume changes a day as smelling like throw-up is less than attractive and I need all the the help I can get.

She's at the stage now where she runs everywhere. Her little feet can be heard clopping around the house, running to and fro. She delights in her Big Wheel, racing down the sidewalk, taking turns at top speed (Fred Flinstone style).

She now plays with two frinds three times a week in our Mama Co-op that I've dubbed "the peanut butter gang". It's an awesome set- up, twice a week I get 2 and a half hours off and one day I watch 3 toddlers. I've been taking yoga and Uma is learning how to share. Everybody's happy.

Most of all, the girl loves to sing and dance. She knows the first parts to many songs- twinkle twinkle, ring around the rosy, patty cake, sunny days, abcdefg, and she says "happy day" throughout the day. She even did ring around the rosy with one of her playmates all by themselves- holding hands. dancing in a circle, and throwing themselves on the ground.

Ironically, she adores this one song that is in her sign language dVds. I used to always skip it because it was all about moms, dads, grandmothers, aunts and cousins and she didn't really have a context for those concepts as we don't have any family around. One day in the car, the song came on and she went berserk, "MOM! DAD! MOM! DAD!", gleefully dancing and bouncing as she screamed at the top of her lungs.
Now every time we go on a ride she begs "MOM! DAD!"
Sometimes all you can do is smile.