first phone call

like most kids, ava's very interested any electronic device with buttons. remote controls are a big hit, as well as phones. however, as of late december, phones and remote controls were indistinguishable to ava, and neither had anything to do with conversing.

over christmas i let her play with grandma's cordless home phone for awhile. i kept an eye on the button pushing, but her keystrokes were so random she never seemed to make an actual call. at one point though, she picked up the phone to her cheek and said "hi", "hi". grandma and i were both surprised and delighted and gave her a little round of applause for this new skill acquired.

a few days later my dad mentioned that he had "enjoyed his phone call from ava". phone call from ava i thought . . . we didn't call grandpa? then i remembered the play session and laughed. not only had ava said "hi" to the phone for the first time, she'd actually been speaking with her grandfather!

since then her phone skills have progressed nicely, and today she even had a nice chat with her grandma about what they were going to do today :

grandma : "we're going to the park so you need to put on your coat and shoes"
ava : "park?"
grandma : "yes, now go put on your coat."
ava : "shoes?"