No... Yes

Jordyn's doing this annoying thing lately. I think I mentioned that my parents taught her "no" and "yes". Well, they thought they did... Really only "no" stuck. She says no for absolutely *everything*! So here's a typical "conversation" these days that happened at dinner tonight:

Me: "Jordyn, do you want more sweet potato?" (holding out a forkful of sweet potato)
Jordyn: "No" (turns her head away)
Me: "Ok, mommy will eat it." (move the fork towards my mouth)
Jordyn: "Noooo!!!!" (shrieking, shaking her head, and reaching for the fork)
Me: "Ok, well so why did you say no?? If you want sweet potato, say 'yes'. Do you want sweet potato? Yes." (modeling what I'm pretty sure the correct answer is for her)
Jordyn: "Yes" (sounds like "dess")
Me: (give her a forkful of sweet potato)

Ugh. I really want her to learn to say "yes" when she means yes!

But then sometimes she says "ooohhh" when she means yes. I think it's only when she's really excited about something, and so has the motivation to say something (anything) other than "no". She wanted crackers earlier, and I opened the cabinet and took out the graham crackers and asked if she wanted one. She said "no". So I put them back and pulled out the Ritz crackers and asked if she wanted one. She said "ooohhh" and smiled, so I could tell she meant "yes". I again prompted her to actually say "yes", but she just can't seem to figure out to just say it by herself yet.

In other talking news, Jordyn has started filling in single words to songs. I have no idea if she could have done this sooner, because last night was the first time I've paused mid-song to give her the chance to do it. She did, correctly (more or less), several times, in several different songs. It all started because her new favorite thing to do is sing and do "Ring Around the Rosy". It's such a ridiculous little song that makes no sense, but she loves it... "Ring around the rosy, pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down!". We've been holding hands and turning in a circle while we sing it, and then at "down" we both fall down, and she laughs hysterically. She tries to fall down at "ashes", but I hold her up until the right time. My brother started singing it with her a couple of days ago while holding her. I was doing it with her last night, and she started saying "down" when we got to that word. So, on our way home from my parents' house, I sang songs, starting with "Ring Around...", and paused before certain words in the songs, and she was able to fill a lot of them in. A new first

Speaking of my brother, Jordyn and I went out to dinner with him last night. My parents had had Jordyn during the day since I worked and her school is closed this week. They went to our temple for Shabbat services and then Chinese food for dinner (at the temple), but I didn't want to take Jordyn. I knew she wouldn't sit through services, and I didn't want to try to leave her with the babysitters, and dinner wasn't starting until 7:00. So, we went to dinner with my brother, and then brought him back to their house (he's in the final stages of finally getting his license back after losing it with all the crazy shit that went down last spring). Anyway, at the restaurant we went to, which was sort of diner-like, there was this display case in the front with random things you could buy. One was a pink stuffed dog, and Jordyn loved it. We were the only people in the restaurant (it's in a college area, and all the college kids are home for break), so Jordyn was wandering around while we were waiting for our food, and she kept going back to the display case. She was pointing at the dog, saying "woof" (which sounds more like "bfff"). When she did it again at the end of dinner, and my brother was with her, he asked the waitress how much it was, and she said $8. It was actually a really nice stuffed animal (Gund brand), and he bought it for Jordyn. So sweet! I honestly wasn't planning to even ask how much it was. I just kept telling Jordyn it was "just to look at with our eyes" and that she couldn't play with it (it was in a glass display case). I was very impressed with my brother, and it's been very obvious that he really does love Jordyn. He recently told my dad he missed her because he hadn't seen her in a while. I'm so glad he has a good relationship with her, since he was the only person who had anything negative to say when I decided to have a baby on my own with a sperm donor (he thought I should "just adopt" if I was going to do it at all).

A few days ago, playing with her new kitchen.