Copying and cognition

We've had a lovely weekend. Took Jasmine swimming for the first time in ages. She passed the water on face, jumping in, going under and getting hair wet challenges with great gusto but as suspected is very reluctant and nervous on her back. In general though she absolutely loved it and squealed with delight for half an hour, putting huge grins on Mummy and Daddy's faces too.

Jambeans has started copying in earnest. It's so adorable. So far we've been focusing on 'heads, shoulders, knees and toes' but the copying is noticeable in just about everything that we do.

She's also making good progress in self-feeding and is fairly competent at shovelling food onto a spoon and getting it to her mouth. But she does get very stroppy about it - once she's got a hold of her spoon, and your spoon and the spare spoon that's it - she ain't releasing her grasp for love nor money. she's got about 15 plastic spoons but we still run out of them every day.

The best thing though is that we have lots more indicators that she understands words and language. Bf has started asking her 'Jasmine, are you hungry?' and she either nods or shakes her head quite vigorously. Ditto when she yelps or reaches for something and we ask her if she wants the cup, or the muslin or whatever, we get a nod or shake, 20-questions style-y. She can also point to her own nose and hair when we say 'where's your nose?' etc. and will pick up the right toy when we ask 'where's the pig?' so we're steadily working our way through parts of the body, farmyard animals and all the other things central to toddler world.