Our little talker

Thank goodness for washable markers!

Torrie has been talking a lot more lately. Her favorite word is "Ohhh", which she says about anything that catches her interest. She also can say bye bye, cup, hot (for food), night night, mom, and dada. She also jabbers a lot in baby talk, which we of course can't understand. However, Torsten seems to understand it all just fine. She'll look at him and babble away, and he'll say " Oh, okay", like he knows exactly what she's trying to say. Torrie still loves to growl as well. She especially likes books with lions or bears, so she can practice her growling.

It's been fun to observe the differences between the two kids. I remember trying to teach Torsten how to do "please" in sign language when he was around a year, and he just couldn't get it at all. I showed Torrie the other day, and she immediately could do it after I showed her just once. She does it a lot now, but doesn't like to be made to do it in order to get something she wants. Thor recently got the kids a little wooden whistle from the wood carvers here. Torsten really tries to blow into it to make it whistle, but can't quite get it yet. Torrie observed him trying and later picked it up and was able to make it whistle right away. She loves to imitate everything she sees her brother doing. She is also our little trash scavenger. One of her favorite things is to empty everything out of a wastebasket. She also likes to take all of the clothes out of a laundry basket.

Torsten was outside playing the other day, and when I went to check on him, he was nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere, with no sign of him. It turned out that he decided to go visit one of our neighbor families. Apparently, their door was open, so he just let himself in and started playing with their toy cars. Until recently, he wouldn't have been brave enough to go off by himself like that.