'allo

(Sorry for the totally disjointed post)
K's new word today was "'allo" (hallo in German, hello in English). She picked it up all of a sudden just before bedtime, and kept demonstrating it for me, looking like she was having a lot of fun putting her tongue to the roof of her mouth to enunciate the l really well. She hasn't been pronouncing the "l" in ball or apple, so this might be a first.
This morning I was sitting on the couch while she looked at a book, and looked over when she opened it and said "appu" (apple) and "nana" (banana), and sure enough, there was apples and bananas on the page. She won't point to things in books when asked, but I guess she certainly does recognize them.
We went to a farm in the city today and had fun. There weren't many animals, just one lone cow, horse and donkey. There were 6 pigs, 7-8 sheep, 4 or so goats, and a bunch of ducks. She loved the ducks and pigs. The chickens definitely scared her - not the couple roaming around outside really, but there were a couple roosters in the chicken barn that crowed really loudly. One even made her cry.
We got Chinese takeout after for lunch, and K really enjoyed the sticky rice and pork balls. The shrimp from the singapore noodles went down well too. Since she doesn't seem to like fruit or veg too much these days, I was relieved when she inhaled asparagus spear after asparagus spear tonight for dinner. She couldn't get enough of it, and as soon as I put them on the table, she had no interest left in anything else on her plate. It's so funny the things she likes - bitter gourd, licking lemons, asparagus. Yet apples, pears, peaches etc leave her cold.
K's very good about sharing things so far. We went to the park this evening, and the usual supply of sandbox stuff left at the park permanently wasn't there. There are usually tons of buckets and shovels and things lying around to play with. We pulled out our little shovel and two forms to put the sand in, but she soon tired of the sandbox and went off to the playground equipment. I left our stuff in the sandbox for the other kids to play with. K started pushing some other little girl's doll stroller, but the older brother came and took it away from her shortly thereafter. Then she climbed up the metal rungs to get from the lowest level of the play structure to the upper level all by herself for the first time. Normally we try to show her how to do it, but she ends up just asking to be put up there. I looked away for a moment tonight, and she was standing on the second-last of 7 or so rungs and stepping up to the last one. She's getting so big! After that we went back to the sandbox to get our stuff, and K grabbed the one playground shovel on our way over. A couple minutes later, a 4 year old kid came over saying "I need a shovel". K promptly held out the shovel she was holding to give it to him. A couple minutes later, she went over and picked up a little yellow ball off the ground to put on the doll in the stroller to push around a little. Shortly after that, a Mom and her baby came over and asked if they could they have their ball back because they were going home. She handed it right on over without having to be asked again. I don't know that this sweetness will last into the 2s-3s, but I sure love it while it's here!