You are 26 months old!

Alphabitty moments!

• Arah is reading the letters!  I was the most oblivious one of the fact since we've vowed not to teach her words or push her to start early and just focus on phonics but she has had a nak for reading letters on her own. Ok then.   We usually practice phonics like apple, apple, a-a-a and so on song on the car ride to school almost every day.  She used to recognize 10-12 letters up until 2 weeks ago but yesterday as she was potty training on the toilet, she grabbed her bath-tub alphabet cubes and I randomly asked her some of the letters.  she knew them all!  well almost.  She still doesn't quite know M,N, P or F  and you've got to work slowly giving her time and making it kind of fun as a bonding game but overal she identified all the rest! I was quite impressed.  I don't really know how and when she learned all the rest as I know the school doesn't start alphabets until primary school.  We were not sure what to think!! but were very thrilled for her natural progress!  I think we've got a new reader in our family :)  Her teacher told me to continue working on the alphabets with her and maybe we proceed to a few simple words in the next few months if she's up to it. But we'll just see.
• Also she has a passion for painting which I'm pretty certain comes from my side (*ehem).  Her hands are most likely covered in paint these days ( and her clothes for that matter!)  and she even aims for our nose, and chin and cheeks  too for that matter at times.   
• As you may have guessed from the above line, she has a love for colors like her mamma.  She's learning colors.  Her favorite color for now is 'Blue'! Will she have a full view of spectrum of colors?  hmmm, I sure hope so! 
• she loves cars and all things with wheels.  at nights we wind the little air-o-plane I had from my teenage years and she kneels on the floor focusing her eyes ready to catch it as it runs toward her.  It is a hilarious scene actually.     
• She plays mostly independently these days for quite a while before she gets hungry or needs to go potty or notices our absence around her.  She wants to describe all she discovers to the first person she sees.  She loves to sing songs and is getting much better at it these days,  twinkle twinkle little stars, ring around the rosie, ABC song to perfection and more.   I think once she's grown up, we won't be bored with her !!(smile)
•   She's gaining more control over dressing herself.  She now puts on her winter jacket all by herself using the upside down method and screams 'I did it!' when done. 
• She's very possessive and uses the word 'Arah's ' a lot these days.  Arah's shoes, Arah's hat, Arah's baby.  If I use one of her baby spoons she may complain and demand that it should be put back in the drawer as it is 'Arah's'! She wants to order people around her!(  I sympathize with her on that one).  Thing like 'shit' down, besheen, pasho, bekhab!=you sleep, look mommy! are typical of her these days.  However, she's also starting to draw boundaries between other peoples' belongings and hers.  She aske yesterday 'mommy this is yours?' referring to my cell phone and I replied yes dear it's mine.  and she said 'Oh, OK!'.  She also expresses herself a little more clearly which is a huge break considering how much time we spent on sign language and trying to identify her needs.   today she told me ' mommy I can not open this' referring to a  toy.  I can imagine how frustrated she must have been dealing with this kind of issues before she knew how to say that.  She also uses the word ' I want' a lot to demand what she needs.   
• She has a nack for 'Anne of Green Gables'.  Well we usually don't let her watch beyond her age movies other than Caillou, bunny rabbit and sometimes Elmo but one day I was motivated to organize my DVD collections and had 'Road to Avonlea' ( my other favorite childhood TV series)  and Anne  in my hand to put away.  Arah insisted on taking 'Anne's box.  Considering that she would probably just scratch or throw it I denied handing it over!  That obviously made her very upset and she wouldn't stop crying.  I then gave up and gave it to her only to watch her cry even morethis time.  Then it occurred to me that she's referring to the Anne Shirley and wants me to  play that one in the DVD play for her!  Silly me.    I went ahead and put 'Anne' on for a little bit which we used to watch with Mehdi or for myself while Arah was playing with her toys when she was younger and viola it switched her mood immediately.   I think there is just something about Anne's spirit, power of imagination and exuberant personality that appeals to her.  We all love you 'Anne of Green Gables' and can't wait for Arah to grow up and actually start reading and watching your adventurous stories!