The Golden Half-Hour

Recently I had the best half-hour ever with Rowan!

No it's not a plastic container, it's my stool. Go ahead and take it way, I dare you!

Bob had a class Wednesday nights, so on Wednesday nights it's always just Rowan and I for bath and bed, and not too long ago she just blew my mind.
We were hanging out in the living room, playing, having a great time when she suddenly turned to me, a serious expression on her face and said, "Ba!" Which is her version of "Bath."
"Ok," I said, "Let's go upstairs."
She promptly lead me to the stairs, and then proceeded to climb the stairs all the way to the top (which was awesome and a little scary). Once she had reached the top she ran into her room, to her changing table, slapped her crotch and said, "Diaper. Bum!"
Ok, I thought, I'll check. Sure enough, she had a dirty bum.
After cleaning that up I deposited the naked girl on the floor and told her it was bath time. Once again she lead me around the corner, this time to the bathroom. She pushed her way and ran to the edge of the tub.
"Do you want a toy?" I asked, testing to see if her sudden bout of mental clarity was still in effect.
She reached down and picked a bath toy from the little bag we keep them in.
"Just one?" I asked.
She grabbed another.
"Are you sure?"
She grabbed a couple more.
"Good?" I asked.
"Goo!" she said enthusiastically and then turned to face the tub, ready to rock.
I put her in the bath and started soaping her up. After a minute I asked her if she would lie down so I could rinse her hair. I'll be damned if the little thing didn't lie back and stay calm while I rinsed the soap off.

The So-Fun-It's-Barely-Legal look

After that she sat up, grabbed the two little boat toys in the tub, hold them up, then assert, "Bo!" Wow!
I picked up a little squirty pirate toy (thanks Murray & Kim!) and told her it was pirate. She concentrated for a moment, then said, "pi-ra!" I couldn't believe it!
So I picked up the little squirty canon and told her it was a canon. She looked at it, and then at me real hard for a moment, then picked up a boat and said, "Bo!" Ok, I thought fair enough.
It get's better though! A couple minutes later she began handing me all the toys so that I could put them away, and then she carefully stood up and let me know that she was done in the bath! Awesome!
A few minutes later we were back in her room, and I let her run around naked while I prepped for bedtime. The first thing she does is pick up her sleep sack (a wearable blanket) and hand it to me. Then she runs over to her change table and patiently waits.
Deciding that I should encourage this helpfulness I opened the drawer with her jammies in it and asked her to pick a pair of jammies. She leaned over, looked, and carefully picked out the third one in the pile.
"Good girl!" I said, "Now get a diaper." She turned and walked away, and thought, oh well, it was fun while it lasted. But no! She simply misunderstood me and went to the dirty diaper pail to retrieve one of those. I showed her where the night-time diapers were and a moment later we were getting ready for bed.
As I dressed her I pointed out her toes, feet, legs, knees, belly, arms, elbows, hands and fingers. As soon as I finished she began repeating them back to me! While pointing the areas out! In no particular order! She's babbled about her belly and toes in the past (as well as mouth, eyes, ears and nose) but not the rest! She nailed all of them, except elbow, but she did try.
I was so proud of her.
Once I had her ready for bed she stuck her arms in the air like a little military commander demanding to be picked up. So I picked her up, and then she flopped her little head onto my shoulder and let out a big, huge sigh.
Ten minutes later she was sleeping. Two weeks later, I'm still smiling!