The Land of Make-Believe

 

Here she is, stirring an empty bowl with a big spoon, from time to time putting the spoon to her mouth and saying "Num!" or "num num" - HG's word for food which she has been using for several months now.

She also likes to pick up telephones - real or toy - and hold them to her ear saying "hello" or "shalom" - which sound pretty much the same according to HG. Sometimes she also says "Abba" and "baa baa" (bye-bye) during her make believe 'phone conversations.

New words in recent days include house, chair, nose, arba (the digit 4 in Hebrew - she doesn't know any others), upside-down (sounds like "up-da"). And she's started saying I in various contexts. Abba tried to help her when she was brushing her teeth; she refused, saying, "I!" Asked whether she wants to do something, she said, "I do!" (Or something like that. Her words are still usually hard to decipher for anyone but her parents.)

HG has become quite a climber - sofas, beds, chairs - everything is for climbing on.



This week Ima took her to a jimboree type place where they have a big playroom with all kinds of toys and props and a very well padded floor. HG enjoyed running around, climbing on the well padded stairs and giant blocks, rocking on the u-shaped rocker and most of all, climbing atop a giant ball (at least twice her height) and having Ima pull her up on top and then roll her back down to the ground again. She also had fun trying to push the huge ball along on her own - very funny to watch, first you saw the ball, apparently rolling along on its own, and then a laughing, gleeful HG pushing it from behind. 

Another new game for HG is trying to get dressed. She loves trying to put on her shoes and socks (without much success so far), trousers, sometimes skirts and as you can see from this photo - Abba's socks too! Essentially anything she can pull over her feet and legs. She has been helping Ima and Abba dress her for many months now, but lately she is starting to become very independent in trying to do it herself.

She is also starting to show an interest in what she wears. This Friday Abba gave her a choice of three Shabbat dresses and she picked the one that she wanted and started trying to put it on by herself.