Awesome!

Since Hannah was easily 6 months old, she has been fascinated by animals (except for poor Princess who made a home with us so briefly).  One of her favorite books remains On the Farm and the accompanying CD is one of the only things that can turn a fussy, whining, back-arching imp into an angelic and engaged little munchkin.  Trading a scowl for the look of delighted surprise at the sound of a horse.

• Cat - Pronounced "Tat" -
• Cow - Pronounced "Tow" and always her first (and often repetitive) choice when singing Old McDonald.  When we went to the zoo - she talked incessantly about the "TOW." 
• Monkey - Pronounced - "Monteee"  Wade took the girls to the Rainforest Cafe and bought them some animal figurines - and her favorites by far or the Montee and the Ape
• Doggy - Miss Donna has a dog - Annie - that Hannah greets each morning with a staccato wave and a "Hi Annie!"
• Duck - What does a duck say? is met with "wack, wack" She's struggling with the Qu sound - but she gets her point across
• Horse - The most hilarious of all of the animals.  For whatever reason, she doesn't want to say horse.  But when she sees one she says, "HI NEIGH!!  HI!" or "MAMA - NEIGH!!"
• Sheep - Again, she won't say sheep - she will call it a "Maaaa"
• Frog - Wibbit - apparently that's what the frog says

Hannah is now singing - with pretty good clarity - her ABC's.  She's counting - often up to 15 (although the teens start sounding the same) and the other day, much to our amazement, she counted to 10 in Spanish.  What?  We didn't teach her that!!!  I guess she learned it at Donna's while watching Dora!  Wade is hoping she'll pick up Chinese watching Ni Hao Kailan.  When she sees Pop and calls him yéyé or Grandpa and calls him wàigōng, we'll know that it's working!

She adores bubbles.  It's a new - and reasonably effective - reinforcer.  She says it with great clarity, "bubbles?"  Wade and I often use the bubbles at night as she is getting dressed for bed  to distract her and to eliminate the complaints.  Much to our amazement, while watching the bubbles float through the air and gently rain down on her, she exclaimed, "BUBBLES!  AWESHOME!"

The speed with which little kids learn and absorb - it truly is AWESOME!