Cate Says...

For months now, Cate has been holding court with her own talk "speewka na wha za booka is ga na doota..." complete with hand gestures as if we are able to understand every syllable.  With every new sound, we think it's all going to click in her head and that she will start talking in words that we can understand.  

Cate tickling her belly button (April 2012)

Here is what she currently says that we do understand: 

• Dada (her first word!)
• Mama (the one we hear most often...especially when she wants something of an evening)
• more (complete with signing -- typically regarding food that isn't a vegetable)
• down (she gets told this a lot -- some times she say 'down' but signs up when she is in the high chair and is attempting to wiggle/crawl out)
• no, no, no (head shake required - at least we don't (yet) get the finger wagging!)
• shoe (a girl's gotta love shoes!)
• ticka ticka ticka (while lifting her shirt high and digging at her belly button)
• nose nose nose (as she is squeezing her nose -- or mine)
• uh oh (when she deliberately drops something from the playroom side of the gate into the kitchen side...or when she is dropping food from her high chair to Kennedy, which she is NOT supposed to do!)
• baby (as she is looking at the pictures of herself on the wall -- which reminds me that I need to update some of the photos...)
• stop it (yes, she hears that a bit...along with 'down')
• doh (dog)

She also signs (without the words):

• milk
• eat
• please

Waving high after WLU won the Regional

Other cool things she does without the words: 

• Waves bye-bye (typically with the arm fully extended and waaay up in the air)
• Knee hugs (when she sees you, she will run over and hug you around the knees -- they are the best!)
•  Blows kisses (who can resist a baby who blows kisses?)
• "Awwww" (that's the noise she makes when you pick her up and give her a hug -- so sweet!)
• Dances!  (The girl has moves like Jagger -- she loves to dance, to just about anything...sometimes to the tune she hears in her head...or just doing the happy dance if she is eating something that she is truly enjoying, you'll see her wiggling her bum in her high chair)

She's at such a fun age right now!  She is entertaining herself a bit, which is nice to not have to be on the floor playing with her every second.  She is so much more happy than she was just a few months ago -- not that she still doesn't do plenty to earn the moniker "Cranky Cate." She still climbs waaaaaay too much (just ask Miss Nannette and Miss Jody at her daycare -- a new wooden structured tent lasted all of about 30 minutes in their room thanks to someone, who will remain unnamed, thought it was put there for her to climb up and jump off of...  Sometimes it's hard to believe it's already been 17 months...when she's putting on a "Cranky Cate" moment, there are times that it feels like it's been twice that long...  We ♥ her so!