Alexandra is articulate. She talks a lot, and her memory is stretching further and further all the time. These are her current favorite phrases:
All Day Every Day:
"Kattoo [Watch] //Muumit/Pew [Pooh]/Einsteins/Little People/World Music/Apina [Monkey: Curious George]/basketball//?" If one show is declined, she goes through each one to see if she can watch
anything.
Drifting Into Sleep:
"Hauska hevonen [Fun horse]," while remembering how much she enjoyed her pony ride last week.
"Hassu kalkkuna [Silly turkey]," while remembering how the turkey in Sandra Boynton's
Red Hat, Blue Hat puts his (or her?) shoe on his head and his coat on backward, among other dressing foibles.
Mealtimes and Bedtime:
"Rukous [Prayer]," because once we teach her something, she doesn't forget...unless that something has to do with her mortal safety, like running away, darting into the parking lot, or coming when she is called.
Playing:
"//Vauva [Baby]/Gifa (Girahvi) [Giraffe]/any toy on its back// nukkuu [is sleeping]."
"Leluäpäki [Slide]?," by far her most requested activity, though while at a playground she may only actually go down the slide once or twice.
Observations such as "Poika menee alas liukumäki [The boy is going down the slide]," or "Koira juoksee [Dog runs]," or "Siinä on [There is a] //vauva [baby]/lentokone [airplane]/koira [dog]/pyörä [bike]//."
In the swing, "Ke-ke-shi (Rocketship)?" so that I'll sing the rocketship song (from last summer's swim lessons, but give her a super-push in the swing instead of lifting her high out of the pool).
Breakfast:
"Puuro/Oatmeal" or "Vohveli [Waffle]", sometimes "Cereal".
When I Am Paying Attention to My Google Reader Instead of Her:
"Tietokone pois [Computer away]!"
When Matthieu comes home, re-enters a room, or she wishes he would come home:
"Dad tuli [Dad came]!" or "Dad tulee [Dad is coming]!"
"Watch basketball?"
"Feed fish?" because Matthieu's Kindle has a digital aquarium that he (supposedly) set up for her.
"Hi, Dad!" is one of the first sentences she spoke. She also says "Bye, Dad" "See ya, Dad" "Dad kouluun [Dad to school]" and she says, "Dad kotiin [Dad home]" when she doesn't want him to leave or misses him (which breaks my heart).
She also sometimes just shouts a random word out of excitement to see him when he first walks through the door, like "Shoe!"
Outside at Night:
"Tuossa on kuu [There is the moon]!" She is an expert moon-finder. Matthieu and I picked up the habit of looking for it whenever we're outside at night from her.
Reading:
She says, "A. K. O," while pointing to words or letters, and "Two. Free. Four. Five" while pointing to numbers. She can consistently count to quantities of five, and Matthieu has heard her count to six.
She has a few of her favorite books memorized, I think, because she will randomly blurt out the word as it is being read, such as "happily" when Clifford wags his tail happily in
Clifford's Apple-Picking Day.
Singing:
She knows all the words to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and most of the alphabet song (in English). She also sings along with a few words to "You Are My Sunshine" and her bedtime lullaby "Nukkumatti". She loves music and has lots of favorite songs, including "Shake Your Sillies Out", "Korro Korro Kirkko", "Old McDonald" and "Oravan Pesä". When she was sick yesterday, she lay on the couch and looked at me and started singing, "Voi, minun, voi minun, pikkuinen tyttö...[Oh, my, pity, my little girl...]" from a song about a sleepy girl that I sing sometimes.
I could do this all day. She has lots of words, but I wanted to remember a few that mark the special phase of life she is in now. This is the phase where she likes her oatmeal unsweetened but would willingly subsist off of fruit snacks, is thrilled by the moon and any dog (real, drawn, cartoon, toy), takes showers (not baths) like she is twelve and curls up with her Pooh blanket and pacifier like she is tiny, runs away as fast as she can without looking back, reads books in someone's lap as long as possible, and thinks her parents are the coolest people to chill on the couch with any night of the week.
We think she is the coolest person to chill on the couch with any night of the week.
