Adventures of Apple-Dog Earnhardt

-Edith has a lot to say about apples and dogs these days. Especially apples. She loves pointing them out in her books. Last weekend we visited Tom's parents' house. Their kitchen is decorated in an apple motif, including a waist-high border of continuous apples circling the kitchen. Edith was in heaven. Her favorite apple was the single one tucked in a corner next to the stove. The rugged individualist.

-In addition to the ruddy orbs thesmelves, clearly the sound of the word apple appeals to her: Other current words she likes include purple, bubble, and turtle.

-She has gotten reasonably good at please when prompted, and today she gave us her first clear thank-you.

-Much as we're excited about new vocabulary, we're trying to avoid teaching her any brand recognition for as long as possible (sorry, Hobokener). But today she got agitated about the pictures of cars in a magazine ad and started shouting some garbled phrase about them over and over. I was fishing around giving her more information trying to figure it out, when I inadvertently said, "That's a Honda." She latched onto the word Honda, repeating it several times as she pointed to the car pictures. Then she made vrooming noises, beeped, and turned her hands back and forth.

-She also tries to imitate the sound of a helicopter whenever she sees one (which around our house seems to be every ten minutes). Plus the generator next to the swimming pool, police sirens, and espresso machines.

-Farewells are like the exit of a princess. She beams on everyone in sight and waves high over her head. "Bye!" she call out. If it takes us two minutes to leave daycare while I'm signing her out and collecting her belongings, she continues to turn and wave and smile and call out "Bye!" the whole time. Heaven help you if you don't respond; she keeps working on you until you do. The teachers all wind up repeating, "Goodbye, Edith" several times over before we're done.

-She likes shooting baskets and is very pleased with herself when she dunks the ball. It's a baby hoop, needless to say. Occasionally she needs help hoisting the regulation-size buh-ball over her head before she makes a shot. Is that an assist?

-She learned today that if she sits down on one of the many tricycles parked outside our apartment building and said trike is facing the street and she lifts her feet, gravity will give her a free ride. The first time this happened we thought we were witnessing a traumatic accident in process. We were standing several yards away talking to our neighbor while Edith puttered around on the bikes and trikes, when we all saw her lift her feet and start to roll. I ran after her but wasn't in time to prevent her shooting off the curb and crashing into the nearest parked car, trike tipping over and Edith landing splat. Scooping her up to offer kisses and comfort, I discovered that the little daredevil was delighted with her new discovery. I brought her and the trike well up the lawn and set the trike down facing the building (i.e. headed uphill) in thick grass. Edith picked it up, carried it to the sidewalk, turned it to face the street, and sat down again. We're in for it.