Back to the basics

By “basics” I mean that we are now back to using cloth diapers. I know it sounds terrible, but it really isn’t as bad as people may think. Ella wore cloth diapers for the first 6 months of her life, then we transitioned to disposable since they were easier. With the summer months the disposables have been a bit rough on her skin, so we figured back to cloth was the best way to go. Also, since potty training is just around the corner, and Ella can’t wear Pull-Ups, I figured cloth would be easier to teach her with. We’ll see how it goes. What was so funny was that when I told Metti that we were going back to cloth, she responded by saying, “I don’t understand why everyone here uses disposable diapers. In Ethiopia everyone uses cloth diapers and just washes them out. They even make their own diapers.” This made me happy because it means that Metti doesn’t mind changing nor washing cloth diapers.

Now for some serious bragging on our genius child…have I mentioned that she’s a genius? Well, last night we were coloring, since coloring is Ella’s favorite past-time. She likes to lay on her tummy and have a blank piece of paper in front of her with all of her crayons surrounding her. Recently she has really been focusing on coloring every part of the paper. If there is a blank area, she states the color she wants to use, then picks up the crayon and colors very directly in that spot. Last night while coloring, I wrote her name on a piece of paper then said to her, “What does this say?” And guess what she said…oh, yes, our genius child said “Ella!!!” She was very excited about knowing that it was her name…and even I was totally shocked. So I pushed it one step further and wrote M-O-M-M-Y, and asked her what it said. She said, “M!” So she’s not the kind of genius that can read full words at 22 months, but she is the kind of genius that is able to recognize when her own name is written. I think that’s pretty impressive for a 22 month old!

We are also working on expanding our shape knowledge from the basic shapes to some that are more complex. Much to my surprise, when I drew an octagon she looked at it and told me exactly what it was. How does she learn this?

Ok, I'm done bragging…for today. We’ll see what tomorrow holds.