Out of nowhere this week, Kaia has started yelling out her own name. She will just say “Kaia! Kaia!” over and over again, and so it’s clear she’s fully recognizing that this is her name. She would always look up for the most part if I called out her proper name, Kaia, or even Pookie or Pookster. I wonder if we are confusing her by calling her so many endless nicknames…?

The other cute thing she’s doing is that she’s recognizing animals and sounds, and words to objects. In different books we read, she recognizes the dog named Pal; when I ask her what this is when pointing at the dog, she responds, “woof woof!” and when I point at the cat, she responds, “Meow!” She also knows who Arthur is (one of her favorite books), Bluey, and she even has started pointing at pictures where there’s the beach and shouting out “watty! (her word for “water”). Sometimes, she will speed ahead to her favorite parts of books. It’s been really sweet and endearing to see this level of development.

During play, she’s also started stacking multiple blocks on top of each other, and she seems to understand more nuances of other toys I’ve been picking up for her through our Buy Nothing group. It really is like what Chris said: literally since our nanny quit, her development has truly exploded. I wonder if that’s a sign of something?