paloma

Paloma has been pretty interested in flowers lately. On a walk, we all like to stop and give the flowers a big sniff. Paloma always finishes with a pronounced “mmmmm!”. Paloma’s a bit more interested in the process than she is in the actual smell, though. She’ll sniff just about any silk flower and give it the “mmmmm” approval rating. The other night, in fact, after I put her flower jammies on, she excitedly pointed to her arm. “This?” she says (she uses “this” as a way to ask us what something is as well as to tell us that she wants something). I told her that it was a flower, and she replied by sniffing her arm, and following up with an nice “mmmmmm”. I wish my jammies smelled that nice.

Afterwards, she spent some time talking on the phone and texting. Note the phone receiver pointing outwards and over her shoulder – that wasn’t just some random placement. It is the way she likes to pretend talk on the phone. “Hi!” she’ll say, and then pass the phone back and forth with mommy and daddy.

A week or so ago, Paloma spent about 30 minutes walking around the house with a robe tie, wrapping it around her neck like it was a scarf and then strutting around, repositioning it, and doing it again. We think it is the beginning of a fashion interest, and she seems equally enamored with Katie’s new hat.

We taught Paloma the itsy bitsy spider song, and she enjoys acting it out with us. Unfortunately, she doesn’t really know that it is best acted out with clean hands. Oh well.

Paloma has started talking some, and she has started sharing things, both real and pretend. While we had heard her say thank you when mimicking us before, this one took us by surprise.

Finally, for reasons we can’t explain, Paloma loves to get zippered up into her jammies. Every night we get a smile and a giggle out of her as we make that final zip.

Nature vs. Nurture? Sadly, as anyone who has eaten with us can attest to, the answer is not clear….