Evie had her 1 year check up at the doctor, and the doctor proclaimed her a “genius”. That’s in quotes because it is a direct quote; her word, not mine. Then the doctor sat Sara down and gave her a talk on how to handle genius children. She said they can be tough because they get into stuff a lot more and get bored easily and because of that can get hurt more. I asked Sara if she explained to the doctor that she was rather bright herself and could probably figure it out and Sara replied that we would just have to ask our parents what it was like to raise genius children.
The reason she thought Evie was so bright was that she can say about 8 words. Apparently at 1 year, you are only supposed to be able to say 1 or 2words and 6 at 15 months (not counting “ma ma” and “da da”). Currently Evie says, Nala, uh-oh, meow, no, banana, diaper (kind of…more like di do), hat and shoe. And oh boy does she say “No!” She has a lot of words that she has said, but doesn’t say reliably like kitty, sock, fish, light.
She has learned a couple of more signs recently as well. She now does book more reliably and night night reliably and has added eat and train. Well she doesn’t form train exactly right, but she sort of approximates. That brings her total to 7 I think. We are working on water and on blowing kisses.
She gives kisses now, but only when she is in the mood. She can point to more things as well, for example eyes.
Over the weekend we went to my dad’s house. In addition to more swimming, she was introduced to a dog for the first time. A big, slobbery, enthusiastic lab. She was very afraid at first even though the dog was only licking her toes. At the end of the weekend she had warmed up quite a bit and even got close enough to touch the dog of her own accord a few times. If we had a few more days they would probably be best buds!
Shane Halbach 
