Little Voices

So it's been a long time since I've posted anything about daily life. We're getting back into the swing of things. Strange how grief and physical trauma make you feel like you're no longer a participant in life. But life does go on regardless of where your emotions stand, and I keep feeling like every time I turn around I see that Katya has changed yet again.
She is practically two and every day a little more of her "babyness" has slipped away. A few weeks ago we bought a box of Fruity Cheerios and she was so enamored of the bright colors (really, the only brightly colored things she's eaten besides fruit and vegetables) that she quickly learned the color names. Purple was first, then orange, then green. She's a secondary color kind of gal. She knows red and yellow, but for some reason won't say the names. There weren't any blue Cheerios, but she's got that color down now through other sources. And white has just been added (tentatively) to the list.
Currently, she is most fascinated by orange and must point it out every time she sees it. But to tell the truth, she especially latched onto the concept of how objects and people she knows and loves have names. After getting the naming concept down, it's interesting to me how she has grasped that some objects have qualities that make them the same. She picks out all of the spoons out of the dishwasher and puts them on the table. She finds a snail in a book and runs to find her plastic toy snail. She notices that her toy car has wheels and finds all of her other toys that have wheels and puts them in a group together. She also loves stars and must point them out. And of course we must read(sing) the page of her Mother Goose book that has "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" on it several times in a row.
She has developed quite the little temper too, especially when tired. Nothing makes her more angry than toys/objects that won't do what she wants. The doll stroller won't go up on the kitchen counter when she tries to lift it? Tragedy! The books won't fit into their little case properly? The nerve! If I can figure out what she wants, I help her and show her how to do something. But more often, I can't figure out what she's trying to do or it's something I don't want her to do. If I try to help her but I'm doing the wrong thing, she gets even more upset. Or if she sees I'm not helping her with something and instead telling her she shouldn't do it, it's the end of the world. And the child does not give up! The storm doesn't end until she is suddenly distracted by something else (lunchtime!) or decides she doesn't want it done that way after all. She doesn't listen to reason that much. But I guess that's the life of a two year old. She is becoming more and more her own person.
On a happier note, there are some things she's doing now that make us smile. She has developed a love of the hymnal that was given to Brent in 1982. She often opens it up on the floor and either starts "singing" with great gusto or flips through pages, looking expectantly at the nearest parent until we recognize a song and start singing. If I'm playing classical music on the stereo she asks if they're "hims, hims?"
I love the way she says chicken. "Dckinnns"
After I get her dressed in the morning and have set her down on the floor, she immediately looks down at her clothes and says "Nice!" before toddling off to her next adventure.
And both of us have discovered that a wonderful treat for a winter lunchtime is sharing yellow slices of juicy delicious mango.