Alyria showed more signs of development today:

• Answering questions about where the leaves came from
• Saying "bless you"
• Being able to wait to finish her cookie

Leaves on the grass

Our dining table has a clear view of our back yard. While eating breakfast, Alyria noticed the fall leaves and said “leaves on the grass”. I affirmed her observation. Then I was curious what she knew, so I asked “where did those leaves come from?”

She of course said “tree.” Then I asked her, “which tree?” She looked around the back yard at several of the trees. Then pointed, and said “that tree.”

I suppose I could have asked a few more questions like why she knew it was that tree. But knowing that was a little beyond her speech, I just agreed that was the likely tree judging by the look and color of leaves and proximity to the tree.

Bless you!

Whenever we sneeze, we’ve always made it a point to say “bless you” around our household. I don’t think we’ve ever given Alyria instructions to follow suit, figuring that could be something we address when she’s more social. But today, when mom sneezed nearby, she said “bless you, mommy.”

Cookie!

We wanted to make sure Alyria has a healthy relationship with food and try not to force her to eat anything she doesn’t want to. Of course she’ll have boundaries on what or how much of something she can eat. But we don’t want her to learn to over eat, and so we always give her the option to not eat something and to choose when she’s done eating.

Part of this practice means that we don’t use “dessert” as a treat or bribe. She’ll often get her dessert and her meal at the same time. And almost always she eats her favorite items first, then slowly picks at the rest. We’ve tried explaining to her what mom and dad do... saving our favorites for last. But she has her own mind about it.

Today at dinner, however, was the first time where mom suggested she wait to have her cookie after dinner. To our surprise, Alyria stopped eating the cookie and put it down. She put half a cookie down. (Seriously how many adults even have that much self control?) She continued on her dinner. And at some point she slowed down and went back to her cookie. I thought she just couldn’t hold it anymore. But when she finished her cookie, she dabbled with her food a bit more (as she typically does), and then proclaimed, “done!”