The Slyngers: Trying to keep up...

I've been so focused on my upcoming due date (less than a month away!), I'm sorry to say I haven't thought too much about the fact that my girl is almost two!! How are we already less than a month away from two!?!?
It's incredible how much she is constantly changing! It is so fun and rewarding to watch her discover new concepts, learn new words, realize new abilities. I'm absolutely loving every minute of it!
There seems to be an overload of fun things happening in Maya's world and I've been having the pressing desire to spill it all out on the blog so I don't forget any of it! So this isn't a "monthly update"...I guess I haven't really been doing those since her 1st birthday...but just an unload of the latest developments. I have some videos too (thank you new iphone!), so hope you enjoy :)

*She's generally talking up a storm. She seems to understand almost everything so I can have basic conversations with her most of the time. She often communicates and responds in phrases. It's just amazing how quickly language has developed over the last few months!

*One of her favorite things to do these days is play dress up and role play. She loves putting on my shoes, her jewelry, my purse and pretend she's leaving the house (generally she says she's working) and will say "bye, have a good day, i love you"! Then she'll exit through a door, turn around a couple seconds later, come back in the door and exclaim "welcome home"! Lather, rinse, repeat.

*She's been singing quite a bit lately and knows multiple songs fairly well (at least parts of them). Among her favorites: Happy birthday, Dooga party (a song from Brad's family that no one else will know...we sing it every nap/bed time), Twinkle twinkle little star, Frere Jacques, It's raining, it's pouring, and a couple of songs from Toddler Group

*Maya is getting better at counting. She hasn't gone from 1-10 perfectly yet, but knows segments of numbers...most often she counts 5, 6, 7, 9, 4! For some reason, she hates 8 and 10 ;)

*She's also getting pretty good at identifying her colors. She generally gets these right: Orange, Yellow, Blue, Purple, Pink and Teal

*I started teaching her family members' names. I guess I thought it would be a good safety measure for her to know Brad and I's "real" names. She now knows Mommy Lisa, Daddy Brad, all her grandparents and some Aunts and Uncles. Of course this did cause some confusion and we often go over names for characters that have no other name than what she already knows...for example, Maya: "What's Thomas' name?" Me: "Choo choo Thomas" That seems to satisfy :)

*Unfortunately, one of her favorite new sayings is "I don't like it". I hear this often for food she hasn't even tried and new toys/items that scare her

*Her large motor skill are improving and she is getting better at throwing (just started some overhand) and catching. She's also climbing on everything and is pretty capable to get up on all the furniture

*New obsessions: Boz, Minnie Mouse and the Backyardigans Pirate episode (she says "argh matey"...pretty cute)