Can you tell mama which way to turn?

We're not to that point yet, but I have a feeling that will be me in 5 years. I am HORRIBLE at direction. I am a total landmark driver and if those change or someone gives me street directions, I get so turned around. Ryanne, on the other hand, can tell me where we're headed on a regular basis. Today, we were going to Nafco (a home goods store) and she kept telling me "ice keem". Well, it's on the way, and she was disappointed that we didn't stop. She gets very excited when we near the clinic where we "pway". Too bad it's next to a grocery store I like. She knew we were going for my "owie" on the way to the doctor's office the other day. This happens all the time...with lots of things. It's not like I'm conditioning her for it, either. I usually avoid telling her where we're going because it makes for a long 15 minute car ride since she doesn't understand how long that is and thinks we're there immediately.

Beyond that, I've taken to wearing a bracelet on the wrist corresponding to which side she should nurse on next. With her only nursing about 4x per day, I forget which one we're on. Well, today I forgot to switch it and put her to the breast that didn't correspond to the bracelet. She looked at me and said "oer side bwace-et". *sigh* Can't put anything over on that kid.

She's now an excellent jumper. She likes to yell "An Man" (Anpanman, a Japanese cartoon character and what they yell instead of 1-2-3 to get the kids to jump at swimming) and then jump off of things...anything...out the car door, off of the car stop in the parking lot, the bed, the couch...

She's picking up more Japanese. She says "denki" (genki - well, as in "I am well"), "hiyo" (ohayo - good morning, but she uses as a general greeting any time of day), "gato" (arrigatou - thank you), "mashte" (do itashimashite - you're welcome), "dodo" (dozo - please take it), "iwa" (konnichiwa - seldomly used as she prefers "hiyo"), "kootoo" (kutsu - shoe). She also is starting to recognize the words for water (mizu), cat (neko), dog (inu), let's go (ikimashou), etc. I try to throw in both words whenever I can as it helps my vocabulary, too. There are others...I'll try to remember them.

Her coloring and eating skills are improving. She's doing spirals with the crayons and can get the fork to her mouth with the food, but has a hard time collecting it on the fork. I'm still not really seeing a hand preference most of the time.

She puts her sandals on 100% by herself and understands if I tell her they're on the wrong feet. She'll even fix them to the right feet. She's also starting to give me the correct foot when I say left and right (this credit goes entirely to Chrys).

She toys with getting herself dressed and undressed. She always gets stuck getting her pants over her diaper (up or down) and shirts are horribly confusing. She gets the pants to her thighs pretty well, though.

She loves to swim and no longer lets me really touch her when she's in her floaties. Last class she started kicking herself in circles and thought that was hilarious. She also practices her kicking. The other day, it was on the kitchen floor (ton ton ton ton - Japanese for kick - as she lay on her back kicking her feet).

We overcame her fear of the mushroom fountains at the pool. I held her in my arms and ducked under. She squealed with delight and wanted to be put down. Now, she thinks it's hilarious to run in and out of the ring of water and get just drenched. She has enough fun that the other kids end up trying it out.

She LOVES hats. We got her Mickey ears and she enjoys wearing those. She also drags her little sun hats out and wears them around the house. I even got her a pair of sunglasses at the 100 yen store. She wears them in the car. She was quite the sight at the store last week - sunglasses, hat, demanding to carry the basket as she put things in it at random - crazy girl.

We're also working with her on using more words. Her favorite game right now is to say a word and make us guess what she wants - to do it, that she sees it, that she wants to see it, that she's telling us a story about the last time she did it, etc. So, we've found that if she says the word and we try to get her to repeat "may I please have (word)" and she does, she wants it. If she turns away, we were just being told about it. She's to the point of often anticipating the "May I please" part. My favorite one of these so far went something like this.

Me: Mama
RC: Moemee
Me: may
RC: may
Me: I
RC: I
Me: have
RC: hat
Me: some
RC: MILT!
Me: *sigh* Yes, RC, you may have some milk.

I guess it's not that she doesn't understand what she's asking for and how the words go. I don't want to rush her, but some verbs might be a nice addition to that 150+ word vocabulary she's got.