little signs

i have been really busy lately with my new job and poor kaiya has been noticing that mommy is not devoting all of her time and attention to her. this weekend i made sure that i spent a ton of time showing my little princess how much i love her. well, apparently she has been working on some new tricks - or these are just old tricks that i haven't noticed b/c i've been so preoccupied.

the first i noticed while i was feeding her. i have major guilt over meal times because i know that kaiya should be concentrating on her food, and not playing with toys while she eats. but she eats better when there are toys to play with. and she needs to be fattened up a bit, so sorry speech therapists, she's going to play while she eats. so anyway, i was feeding her and thinking the guilty thoughts when i decided to see how "into" eating she was. the toy was right in front of her and she was playing away. i just put some food on her spoon and held it out, within reach of her mouth, but not prodding her mouth with it. well, she turned her little head, opened her mouth, and then realized i wasn't moving the spoon. so she leaned forward and took the bite herself. it made the meal a bit longer than we're used to...but i kept at it just to see if she would keep doing it. so apparently the toys aren't totally distracting her from eating, she still wants the food and she proved it right???

and then we have our "getting ready" ritual. she usually helps me put her arms and legs through, but i was never sure if she was doing that on purpose or if i was just imagining it. well today she proved to me that she was doing it on purpose. i was about to put her shirt on her and the phone rang. i was momentarily distracted b/c i wanted to listen to the machine to see if i should pick up the phone. kaiya apparently wanted that shirt on b/c she ducked her head down, leaned forward, and pushed up through the hole. i was kind of shocked so we got tangled for a bit...but then i was very impressed!

they are little things to most people - but to me these are huge signs that she is learning. and i love it!