Gia at almost 22 months ...

Gia continues to grow in delightful ways. She loves to laugh and make us laugh. When we stayed at a friend's home during a recent trip to LA, she woke up the first morning with a very happy, "Yay!" ... the next morning with a "Daddy! Hi!" and the next declaring "Gia up!" She kept waking up earlier and earlier because she was so excited to be in the same room as we were, and really more excited because there were two other little girls ("Babies!") in the house. She was so happy to have other kids to play with in the morning (no matter that we could have slept for 2 more hours before the other girls were actually up). It was during that trip that we went to a pumpkin patch and she instantly learned the word "Pumpkin" and easily identified that it's "Ohnge" (orange).

This morning, she surprised me with two new words: "Tie!" when she wanted me to tie her shoes, and "Cook!" when she was at the play kitchen at school and I was trying to get her attention to say goodbye.

A few things she loves these days:

1. Her picture book of family and friends
   
2. Animals and babies
   
3. Cuddling, especially with Nana in bed in the morning
   
4. The color blue, and secondarily green
5. Counting ("one ... two ... three ... nine!")
   
6. Going to the park
7. Heart-to-Heart cereal ... with Os and Heart shapes
8. Brie, hummus, baba ganoush, and grapes
9. Cleaning up
10. Dancing
11. Drawing
12. Chatting
    
13. Hugging her friends at school. This week, we picked Gia up from school and she wanted to give all the other kids a hug goodbye. When one on the teachers saw her give a hug and let go she said, "Wow, you have learned to let go. Last week you just held on until you both fell down!"
14. Ice Cream (uh oh!). The other day, Drew was eating ice-cream. Gia saw him, and asked for some too. Drew gave her a small spoonful and she frantically made her sign for, "I like it." Drew gave her one more bite and she pointed at the bowl and said, "Happy."

That's the story for now. Hope you're having a wonderful autumn!