little conversations

Yesterday, we fed Claire some fried egg yolk for the first time. She liked it and kept asking for more. Generally while eating, she interjects single words like, "more, again, big-bite, eat, taste," etc. Then I asked her about the eggs, if "it tastes good?" To which she replied, "it tastes different."

Today we stopped by the front yard up the block where 4 "older girls" (ranging from 4-8 years old) were hovering over a tray of some brown objects sorted by size. I figured Claire might be interested, so we approached. They saw Claire coming and called out welcoming "the baby." But then one of the younger ones warned, "these snails are kind of dirty, and some of them are big!" Another asked Claire's name, to which she replied in full, adding, "shoes on!"

I took Claire on her first bus ride today. She was pretty quiet and wide-eyed during it, but soon after we got off a few blocks later, she said, "again!" But I pressed on to our destination, swinging at the park. The whole way she kept talking about the bus "zooming" and asking me to sing the "Wheels on the bus" over and over. At the park, in the middle of swinging, she mentioned the bus again! So we rode the bus home also, and Claire told Mommy about it when we got home.

Health updates: We've been dressing Claire in short sleeves recently since the weather is warming up. Thankfully she is doing quite well. Though we have put on topical steroids a couple of times this week to help control the night-time itching. Her reflux is no longer a problem. The solid food seems to have cured it.

The ABC book mentioned below is still a favorite with Claire. On the C page, the book asks, "What begins with C?" to which Claire volunteered her own name. On the D page, she suggested "drowzy" (which is not in the book.) Sometimes I hear her muttering fragments of the ABC's under her breath, and when we prompt singing several letters in order, she most often responds by saying the next several letters in the sequence. I have a vague sense that one is not supposed to "push" their kids to read early. But if you never turn on the TV, then books are inevitably a big part of their play time, so I don't know how we can avoid her reading "early" assuming she continues at this pace.