Lola the Ornithologist or Lola the Dog

Lola was exiled from daycare some this week, so we spent the time reading lots of books.  Lola's attention span for actual story books has increased dramatically, so we are engrossed in the masterful work of Kevin Henkes.  (If you have a child and have never read Kevin Henkes to him/her, go to the library RIGHT NOW and get Owen and A Good Day.  Henkes is a genius at writing and illustrating stories geared toward young kids.)  Anyway, after reading Old Bear and A Good Day 12,000 times, we switched to one-word picture books. 

We have a collection of vocabulary board books with a single photograph picture per page.  (Again, wonderful books for kids.)  Lola and I concentrated on the animal books because Lola LOVES birds.  She stands at the windows and watches the birds fly by.  When she had pneumonia, I wrapped her up in blankets and we sat outside for hours so she could watch the birds.  Each house on our street has wonderful old, established trees, and we have hundreds of birds.  Unfortunately for us, they build nests in our gutters.  Fortunately for Lola, that makes them even easier to find.  They were the very first thing she pointed to, with the full intention of saying "Look, Mommy!  Another bird!"  Nowadays, her finger is always in the air as she tries to identify another moving bird for us.  (As you might well imagine, she loves the bird section of the zoo.) 

Her speaking vocabulary includes the words bird and duck, but has never moved into many animals past that.  This week, we expanded her vocabulary to include animal sounds.  She now will woof for a dog, cock-a-doo for a rooster, quack for a duck, baa for a sheep, and laugh hysterically for a bunny.  (What sound does a bunny make?  I don't know.  So we say "nibble, nibble" and wiggle noses.  She's not very good at it but she thinks my wiggling nose is quite funny.) 

We were walking outside earlier this week and encountered a woman walking two dogs.  Lola pointed and then went "woof, woof!"  It was awesome and incredibly cute.  I cannot wait for her to growl like a bear!

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