"Dog" and "Cat"

Here come the puppies!  She is having so
much fun petting and playing with them.

   Jewell's newest consistent word is "dog."  She points to Benelli and says, "Dog!"  She looks at the puppies and says, "Pup," a lot of the time, but sometimes says, "Dog," for them also.
   She also absolutely loves our cats.  She is saying, "Cat," and pointing to them, or other times she says, "Kitty."  I have such a smart girl.  She is really excelling verbally. I am impressed at how much she is saying and pointing to items.

She loves the music and lights on the fun
tables as she plays on them, standing on her own.

   Plus, now, she is getting around very well.  She is really enjoying this new found independence of crawling.  She is going to be walking in no time.  Once I help her get to her feet, she is also standing at her Leap Frog tables on her own.  

Liz is spotting Jewell as she uses this cart to
walk across the living room on her own!

Jewell is cheering as the puppies eat
while she and Liz play in the yard.

A new favorite thing for Jewell to do in the beautiful spring
green grass outside is to pick handfuls of it and try to put it
in her mouth to eat.  We are trying to get her to stop, but
she just isn't listening.  My friends assure me that it is
just a phase.  

"Pups!"

And she's off....

   Here we go!  Jewell is getting around on her own.  It is a mixture between a crawl and scoot.  It looks like she is positioning one leg as if she wants to stand up and then pushing off with it.   I figure she sees me get up off the floor in that position a lot, but only recently have I started crawling on all four so she could see what that looks like.  On grandma's carpet today she was crawling on all four though.
   To our cats, I have to say, "Watch out!"  Jewell got over to the cat this afternoon and was SO excited!  She just giggled and giggled.  The cat twitched its tail, which became a great game for Jewell grabbing at it.  Eventually, she got a handful of hair and the cat got up.  It stayed close enough to her though for her to get her way over to it again.
   I know we are going to have to keep a closer eye on her, but I am excited about her getting around and playing with things independently.

This is a new favorite toy.  She needs help getting seated, but can sit up
and push herself on this fun Dora mobile.
She also uses it to help herself stand up while I stabilize it and spot her to make sure she doesn't fall.
She also loves all the music it makes and emptying out blocks from under the seat.

Puppies!

Benelli's puppies have arrived.  She had seven pups, and Jewell
loves them.  In this picture, she is sitting on the trampoline playing
with her new found friends.  Jewell sitting up and playing independently
has opened up a whole new world of discovery!

Clapping is her newest form of excitement.
She is clapping her hands as she gets to play
with the puppies.  It is great to also see her
clap for herself when we tell her, "Good job."
For example, when she helps me put her spoon
in her mouth while eating, she claps. :-)
Seeing her have great joy is so much fun! 

"Yeah!!"  Jewell is cheering as she plays with her
new friends.  She finds the puppies fascinating.
However, I think they find the way she grabs them
less than fun.  She is still learning how to pet them gently.