Siena’s ability to say long sentences continues to amaze us. Or perhaps I should say, her ability to repeat many syllables that she’s just heard back continues to amaze us. For example, when she drops (read: throws) something like her bib or a napkin on the floor at dinner, I grab her wrists, have her look me in the eye, and say, “I will not throw my bib on the floor,” which she does. She’s even throw one on the floor and then almost immediately said the above line without prompting. Amusingly, she also has said it while doing a wagging-index finger “we’re number one” arm pump on every syllable, as in “read my lips, no new taxes” and “I did not have..” (well you know the rest).

We’ve also been working on some good long words, like:

• articulated
• defenestrate
• ectropian (mama came up with the great idea of using vet terminology)

And she also is singing a ton, which is great. She can’t keep a tune, but she usually goes up when the melody goes up, and down when it goes down. She’ll sing entire verses or songs on her own with little to no prompting on our part, such as:

Dance to your daddy, my little baby.
Dance to your daddy, my little lamb.
You shall have a fishy, on a little dishy.
You shall have a fishy when the boat comes in.

And, of course, she has started singing:

Little bunny Siena [ed. foo-foo, daddy, etc.],
Hopping through the forest.
Scooping up the field rats [ed. mice, etc.]
bop ’em the head.

Well, it’s OK I guess that she doesn’t always get all the syllables in there.

And yes, despite earlier efforts, she does say bop!