Dog Groomer-in-Training

Serena is starting to learn the sign for "all done." I actually use it most regularly when I'm changing her. Since we still don't have a changing table, her pad is on the floor. That's definitely not a big deal at all, except that she can climb off of it a little too easily...like sometimes when I'm not actually done changing her yet! So, she's learned that she's not allowed to get off the changing pad until I say "all done" and do the sign (to do the sign, you have your hands palms up and just turn them palms down). Lately, when I'm about halfway through changing Serena, she will put her right hand out and start twisting it in the air and saying in her high-pitched voice, "uh? uh?" "No, not yet, Serena!" But, when I do give her the "all done" sign, she is so happy as she rolls herself over and climbs off of that pad and walks herself out of the room to find the next thing to do! ;) Signing makes her so happy. Almost every time she signs "more" or "eat" or I do a sign to her, she laughs.

Jordan really got her laughing today! He got her all dizzy for the first time. It was SO funny! We were laughing so hard at her! It all started when he offered to let her hold his finger while he walked her around the house. (I think they were waiting for me to finish something and he was trying to keep her happy.) She thought that was great and didn't want to stop. Whenever he would try to stop, she would come over to him and try to grab his finger again. So, he held her hand and then just turned in a circle while she circled around him. She started laughing and we soon noticed that she was getting a little dizzy! Later, Jordan picked her up and spun around. She laughed and laughed! But, when he was done, we noticed her eyes were going back and forth as if she was watching the room spin around! Haha! It was hilarious! Jordan put her down and she fell sideways onto the floor. It took her a couple minutes to be able to walk straight again! We're definitely going to work on getting a good video clip of it for Thursday! ;)

Oh, and one more funny thing she's up to now. She loves throwing balls. Because of the dogs, we have a few tennis balls around. Tennis balls are perfect since she can pick them up with one hand and they don't cause any damage when thrown! Most of the time when she throws a ball, one of the dogs (usually Rocky, since he loves retrieving the most!) will run and pick it up and bring it to Jordan (if he's home) or to me. Serena is so pleased when the dogs retrieve her ball and she comes and takes it from us so she can throw it again (apparently it doesn't bother her that the dogs NEVER retrieve it back to her). But, when the dogs don't retrieve the ball for her, Serena will stand and point at the ball and point at the dogs and shout commandingly in her high-pitched voice, "Da! Da!" The dogs don't even show any response! Haha!

When Serena saw Daddy sitting on the floor combing the dogs this afternoon she ABSOLUTELY HAD to try it herself! As you can see, she was pretty serious about it (even had the tongue sticking out!). But since we were laughing at her, she started being silly and gave us the enormous cheesy grin you can see in the top right picture! She's such a ham these days!

I definitely see "Brush the dogs" as one of Serena's regular chores someday! ;)