Mealtime with Summer

During mealtime, Summer so badly wants to be "in the conversation"!  She will often ask for "questions" which mean Daddy and I ask her various things like what she did that day, what day of the week it is, what color things are, what sounds various letters make, etc, etc.  Mealtime often turns into "school time" as she soaks up the one-on-one attention and the feel of being included in the conversation! 

*This week she mastered counting from 1-10 in order (she used to count 1,2,3,9,10,4,11, 8, 9, 10) each time we asked her to count). 
*She has also mastered most of the sounds of the consonants of the alphabet.  "S" is her favorite letter, as it stands for "Summer"!   She will randomly say words that start with the letter we are talking about, and sometimes she will surprise me with the ones she comes up with!  Today she mentioned "Walmart" when we talked about "W" (I guess she sees it on the store front?!?), she mentioned Mr. Todd when we were talking about "T" (Kristin's fiance's dad!), and Ms. Lori (a friend from church) when we were talking about "L".  I usually use more common examples like "water", "Tucker", and "ladybug" when we go over these letter sounds, so it surprised me a bit when she came up with her own to add to the mix!
*She can tell time on a clock, as long as it is time "on the hour". 

She is so funny, however, because whenever I turn on the video camera, she gets silly, so it is a challenge to document what we have been working on!!  Here are various clips (with most of the silliness cropped out!) of the things we have been working on lately.

During dinnertime, there are times when Daddy and Mommy want to talk, and Summer is asked to wait quietly while we finish a conversation.  This has been an interesting challenge to teach Summer what it means to not interrupt and to be quiet while the attention is not on her ;).  We started using a sand timer that we now call the "talking timer".  We practiced one day at lunch being quiet while the sand is falling through the timer.  She caught on right away.  She LOVES watching the sand fall through the timer, and she will sit quietly and watch it until it is done falling.  This gives Mommy and Daddy a few brief minutes to talk ;), and then it is Summer's turn to talk again!

Here are a few more "Summer-ism's" from lately...she keeps me laughing!
-We use Desitin if Summer gets a diaper rash, and while I am applying it she will say, "Mommy's fingers are all Desitin-y".  Her "made-up" word makes sense, and made me smile!
-She was curious why we call little cats "kitties" instead of "catties".
-While I was stirring a brownie mix, Summer asked me if I was going to use the "little vacuum".  After a bit I realized she was talking about the mixer!