Sign Language, Mimis and Dancing

So much has changed in just a few weeks that I had to jot it down before I forget. Bentlee finally seems to be grasping sign language. The main one we've worked on is "more" and she usually just claps, which took months for her to catch on. But "please" she picked up within seconds. She doesn't do it very often, and we usually have to ask her to say it. But it is oh-so-cute when she does! She copies several other signs when she watches her signing movies. This is her signing "baby"...

The words she says on her own are mama, dada, "dee" for dog and "kee" for kitty, uh-oh, and my personal favorite, "mimi" for binki. I love it because she came up with it all on her own. She's actually been saying it for months, but we just figured out last week what it meant. It's so obvious to us now-when we're in the car and she drops it, she whines "mimi" over and over until we pull over and find it for her. And when it falls out of her crib, same story. She's not extremely attached to her binki but she always needs it to fall asleep and she likes it in the car, especially when she's tired. I also love that she named it her "mimi" because my niece Gracie calls it the same thing. So cute!

She's getting really good at mimicking us-from small things like putting lotion on our hands, to folding our arms when we pray. I first noticed that last Sunday when she copied the family sitting behind us. She's done it a few times since, and then this morning Kyle knelt down next to her in the living room where we always say a family prayer together. She knew right away what that meant and had her little arms folded and head bowed before he even did. We've never taught her to do that, it's always been on her own. I hope that she's always so willing to pray with us!

She's walking along furniture like a pro, and she's pushing her walkers. She still tries to climb stairs every chance she can get, but 95% of the time there's a gate in her way.

I love the way she bobs her head and/or dances whenever music comes on. Yesterday in the car it was especially cute because she happened to be drinking a bottle.

I love watching her personality develop. She definitely has a goofy side to her. A few days ago she randomly made up a game all on her own (that probably came from when I did this with a sock a couple months ago) where she puts her binki on her head and lets it fall off. She laughs so hard at herself and it's the cutest thing! I tried getting it on video the other day but she was kind of over it at that point.

More to come soon!