Animal Noises and School Pictures

As many of you know (and have heard on multiple occasions), Riley has a wide collection of animal noises that she likes to make. Not only is Riley responding to the question, “What noise does a ______ make?” but she is recognizing animal drawings (abstract and cartoon) and photographs and connecting the noise to the object as well. The learning curve that Riley is facing at this age seems so steep that I guess Cody and I don’t expect such quick progression…we are literally impressed EVERY day with the connections and knowledge she is not only learning but retaining as well.

Last weekend there were multiple instances in which we were totally blown away…. Cody had some animal planet show playing in the background as Riley sat down for lunch last Saturday…I wasn’t paying attention to it and I assumed that she wasn’t either…how quickly I forget that Riley hears and absorbs everything around her! There was a small domestic looking monkey on the show that was stuck on a telephone pole…Riley instantly started making her monkey noise and scratching her armpits. Later that afternoon, she was looking at a book and it had a close-up picture of a gorilla (very different looking than a small monkey) and again, she started to make the monkey noise. I guess we didn’t realize that she recognized “monkeys” with such different looks!

Later that night I took Riley to Trader Joes to complete some weekly shopping. Riley was in a very talkative mood…she said “hi” to everyone who passed by, was using quite a bit of sign language and words to ask for different foods (I always have to give her the food item and she puts it in the cart…when we get to the fruit bars, she always asks for more because she loves them!). While we were getting some milk, she started to make her horse animal noise (which is the best of her animal noises because it is sooo funny). I was looking around for a horse but didn’t see anything…giving Riley less credit than she deserves, I just assumed she was being silly and making the noise for fun. Before we left, I realized that I forgot something in the same aisle as the milk, when we went back, Riley started making the horse noise again. I knew she had to be recognizing something so I looked harder and realized there was a very abstract looking horse piñata hanging from the ceiling…I couldn’t believe that she knew the bright pink and yellow piñata was a horse (it was a very abstract representation of a horse).

Riley’s current repertoire of animal noises include: dog, cat, horse, cow, pig, sheep, fish, rabbit, duck, bird, bee and bear (I am sure I am missing some too).

Below are some pictures of Riley at school over the last few months…Cody and I love this school…they offer very stimulating activities throughout the day, which are not only fun for Riley but very educational as well.