Ring Around the Rosey

I am excited because Zoey has shown us that she understands some of the things we say. She has learned to sit down by playing Ring-Around-The-Rosey with me. To teach her, I sang the song and played the game with her and at the end where "we all fall down", I just kind of pushed her down into the sitting position. After a couple songs of it, she was trying to sit down before the song was over. She knew what was coming.  It was exciting to see her catch on to the game.  The next day, she got confident enough to sit without holding onto me. She could do it all by herself! I would praise her every time. And it was easy to see the pride in her face as she took one more step toward independence. 

Later when dad got home, we showed him that she knew exactly what to do when she heard me start to sing "ring around the rosy.." She would often be on her bum before the I could say "a pocket", as the next phrase starts. We started to say "sit down" before singing the song, and she quickly picked up that this is what she is supposed to do when we say "sit down". 

Not only is it exciting because she has shown us that she understands words and can follow instructions, which is seriously HUGE to me! It is also exciting because she can sit back down in her crib when she wakes up and stands up in the middle of the night.  She demonstrated that she was capable of this last night after we left her alone for a few minutes. It was cool that she made the conscious decision to get down, lay down, and go to sleep. Yet another step toward her and our independence in the night. YAY! She woke up about five times last night, (unfortunately, this has become normal the past week) but she put herself back to sleep every time within no more than ten minutes.

Maybe, just maybe, we will be able to start sleeping again.