Bunny Update

There is so much to say about Naomi these days that it is difficult to boil it down into a theme. So I am going the way of the technical writer (minus the succint quality, I am sure) and using bullets. –

• Naomi has a big(ger) girl bed now- she just completed her fourth cribless night. The bed is from IKEA (of course) and sports a nifty blue canopy kind of thing. She has fallen out twice already, but neither fall awakened her. Don't worry, we have created a landing pad around the gap, so when she falls out, it's into a pile of pillows. Miraculously (everyone knock on wood as you read this), she has not once removed herself from the bed on purpose.
• Does anyone else remember that Steinbeck story where the local developmentally disabled man plays back conversations he has overheard, in the saloon, for tips? Naomi could give this guy a run for his tip money, except that what she plays back are the things she hears at daycare. I am sorry to say they are almost all discipline-related. I am only going to say this once. Listen to my words. No hitting. We don't hit. Listen, are you listening? Do you understand? Do you understand my words? The comic twist is when her dad and I are subsumed into this dialogue of commands. Mommy, don't hit dancing bear (as though she has caught me in the act of assaulting one of her toys). Daddy, you take a bite of that sandwich RIGHT NOW. Whew.
• On the cuter, nicer side, she also plays back songs she has learned. There's something that sounds like "Goolee goolee goolee a-rum-sum-sum" or something like that, as well as some song that I assume has all the kids' names in it at some point, but Naomi only likes to sing it with "Colby." "Colby, Colby, Colby, let's take Colby!"
• I think I have already mentioned that Naomi is very skilled with context. By this I mean that she remembers words and phrases and grasps the context they are used in really well, so that she startles us sometimes by saying things that seem to imply a very complicated understanding of things and of language, but really, she just knows where to put certain words. It always keeps us guessing as to what she really understands. Probably more than we think. One example- I was cooking shrimp, and (against all child safety suggestions) picked her up so she could see what was in the pan. "It's shrimp," I said. "Shrim," she said. I said shrimp again, emphasizing the P. "Actually," she said, "actually, it's shrimmm." I stand corrected.
• Last night Naomi made a joke, and a decent one at that. For a while in December, when we were all sick all the time, she got her head around the fact that all of us have doctors, and each doctor has a different name. So if you had asked her what her mom's doctor's name is, she could have answered correctly. It happens that the doctor Jim sees is named Applebaum. Last night, during a brief revival of the what's your doctor's name game, she said, "Daddy, you should see Dr. Applebaum." Pause. "You should see Dr. Carrotbaum." Hee! Maybe you had to be there, but the fact that she laughed even before we did seemed to indicate that this girl was trying to be funny.
• I don't know how to explain this one, but she sometimes uses a slightly different voice, one that's a little lower in her throat. When she really gets going on a topic, she drops the second part of the sentence into this other voice. I have no idea where it comes from. This is completely different than the super squeaky, high-pitched voice that she uses when channeling the personalities of her stuffed toys, creatures she has created by chewing her bread or bagel, or her own fingers or feet. Mommy! Put a sock on me! I need a shoe!
• Whenever I arrive at school to get her, Naomi smiles a huge smile, announces to everyone that her mommy is here, and runs to me from wherever she is (lately, outside in the play yard). It is a joy I look forward to all afternoon long. No one else that I know is ever this happy to see me, let alone if they were to see me every day. Kind of sounds like I'm just in it for the love.