Claire understands more every day and demonstrates it in many ways. Here are some examples.

• The other day we were getting ready to leave, and I was searching for her sippy cup. As I looked around I said, “Where’s your cup? We need it to go bye-bye.” I continued to scan the living room muttering that I had just seen it somewhere. Then I turned around, and Claire was toddling back from the kitchen with the cup in her hands, and she walked over to the diaper bag and laid it on the top.
• When I ask her if she needs a dry or clean diaper, sometimes she nods yes. When I tell her we need to go change her diaper, she walks over to the stairs and waits for me to open the gate.
• Claire will stand at her bookcase and pull books off the shelves one after another as she searches for the book she wants read to her. Sometimes I’ve suggested a book (Let’s read Trucks!) and she finds a book about trucks and hands it to me.
• I started asking her to say “please” when she wants a book re-read to her. A couple of times she did say it, but then she decided to resist. She’ll shake her head, say “No,” and emphatically make the sign for more. If I persist in telling her to say please, she gets mad and upset. I’ve decided that when it comes to saying please, I’ll start with modeling the behavior for her. I also don’t want to get into a fight with her about saying please at this age, especially over reading books. And while I think she understands the concept of “no” to some degree, I also think she gets confused. There are times she says no when she clearly means yes.
• When she hears a plane (or helicopter), she declares Pane! Pane! When she hears the rumble of a loud truck engine, she says Ca! Ca! (her word for truck). Also, when she sees a plane in the sky, even when it’s very small because it’s far away, she becomes excited and shouts her word for it and babbles. Sometimes she mistakes a bird in flight for a plane as well, but she’s starting to make the distinction. The other day she pointed to a black bird and said crow (though the “r” sounds like “w” still).

She’s also added new words: bag, bear, bow-wow, bubbles, bus, crow, foot, neigh, ooo-ooo (monkey), pop, poop, quack, sneeze, tummy, tunnel.