Parenting Kali 1.10..........

Life with Kali 1.10 is always interesting......

-Kali likes to do puzzles and color a lot. More importantly, she's always asking me for help. Occasionally, I'll be working on something and not respond immediately to her request for help. She's very persistent and always asks multiple times. While it can cause a delay in completing what I'm working on, the smile that she gets every time I agree to help says it all. She's excited when I interact with her, and that's reason enough to do it.

-Kali's latest game is playing 'nigh-nigh'. She loves to have all her stuffed animals dumped into her crib and then she climbs in and lays down on top of them. I'm not sure what the reward is, but she loves it. She's even more excited when Mrs. Lime or I is around to do it with her. If we leave the room, she immediately begins saying 'Mommy!' or 'Daddy!' to get us to come back. Once again, it's not as much fun if Mommy or Daddy isn't playing with her.

-She's learned quickly just how important it is that the Oreo Cookie needs to be separated before eating it. She also always eats the side that has the cream filling still stuck to it. Not only that, but if you put two or more Oreo Cookies in front of her, she has a method to her madness. She'll always separate all of the cookies in front of her before she eats any of them. She'll also always eat all of the sides with cream on them before the non-cream sides.

-She's taking in everything right now. Today, while we were watching a movie, there was a point where there was applause. She started clapping and smiling and then looked over at me and noticed I wasn't clapping. She immediately stopped, thinking it wasn't the right time to clap. I started clapping and she joined in. When I stopped clapping, she did as well. Even more interesting, I saw her looking at my hands and then folding her hands. She even adjusted the way she folded her hands a couple of times. I looked down and noticed that I had folded my hands once I stopped clapping. Not only was she mimicking me, she was trying to make sure that her hands were folded the exact same way my hands were folded.

-When you're a parent and you ask your child for a hug or kiss, it's great to get that hug or kiss with a smile. When you're a parent and get a hug or a kiss out of the blue without any particular reason, it's priceless. I got a priceless hug tonight. It's a good day.