Cuteness Overload

Katy turned one two months ago.  Since then, her walking has improved, she's learning to run, and she has started to climb. More impressive, however, are the cognitive developments over the last two months: Tripled English/Spanish vocabulary, pointing to body parts, giving "besos," responding to questions and commands given in Spanish and English, pretend play, and mimicking like nobody's business.  It's ridiculously cute to watch.

Pointing to her ombligo (belly button)

Cochinitos (little piggies aka toes)

Nariz (nose)

Katy's also learning sounds that different animals make.  When I tell Katy, "El Lobo dice A-uuuuu," Katy responds with her own tiny howls, complete with a tilted head  This is also ridiculously cute.  She later realized that Doug howls and that she can howl with him, which usually happens as a siren is passing by our house.  Not yet understanding that people don't normally howl at sirens, she also howls when we hear a siren while running errands in town, far from Doug's howling cues.  As cute as it is to see Katy and Doug howling together, Katy's misplaced howls are even cuter.

Katy also recently learned how to beat her chest like a gorilla from an Eric Carle book that reads, "soy una gorila and me golpeo el pecho" (I am a gorilla and I beat my chest).  Whenever Katy hears the word mapeche (Spanish word for raccoon) in one of her other books, she beats her chest because peche ounds similar to pecho.  This is also - you guessed it - ridiculously cute.

A few months ago I told Chris I was afraid Katy's cuteness was peaking.  I was so wrong.  These most recent changes are ridiculously cute.