waving bye bye

she's known how to wave bye bye for months now (since last oct) but only recently has she been using this rather...um...indiscriminately. she now waves bye bye almost as if to direct someone to get lost!

apart from doing "so big" (did i cover this pan-european grandparent trick in a previous post?), dd can now point to her belly-button when asked where hers is.

anyway, on "so big": this comes from leah's paternal grandparents (nai nai and ye ye). they'd ask dd, "leah, how big is leah?" and as she stares at them, they'd continue, "so big, so big." and hold their arms straight up. this is repeated until one day dd actually held both hands up to shoulder level with her palms facing upwards (as if in a plea of "who me?") in answer, acceptable enough a response to ye ye and nai nai.

the day i discovered that "so big" is not confined to the ameri-english world was when i went to visit a friend who had just given birth to her 3rd son in hospital. her mom-in-law, a german who only speaks german (aptly what), was at the ward visiting too. this sweet lady took a shine to dd and came over, squeezing her thigh or arm like a ripe melon, commenting on how chubby she was. (even though i don't know a word of das deutsch the universal language of grannies seem to cross cultural barriers.) later, when i had dd on my lap, she came to us and raising her arms up high, said, "so gros? so gros?" a lightbulb flashed in the dimness of my brain...ahhh something the brits can share with the continentals even as they disparage the euro.

besides cats, dd can identify flowers and butterflies too - in books, on her clothes.