This

Rhea is now pointing to the things she wants or grabbing whatever caught her eye and saying what sounds like "this." So, if you can picture her picking up her shoes, handing them to me and saying, "this." Or reaching for the grapes in the fridge and looking at me and saying "this" It's so cute and there is no mistaking what she wants these days!

Her vocabulary is slowly growing. She now says mama, dada, hi, bye and this, although I am waiting for the vocabulary explosion I am sure is right around the corner. She is talking all the time, although it is still just sounds, not a lot of actual words yet or gestures.

The head nodding continues. Now in addition to letting us know if she does or doesn't want something, when Rhea does something she knows she shouldn't do, like touch the TV stand or try to open the cat food, she shakes her head no as she does it! So, I guess she knows she is doing something I always tell her not to do, but she stills does it anyway! She hasn't repeated the word no yet, although there are some days I swear that's all we say to her and I can't imagine it will be long until we hear the word no right back at us.

For now, we continue to verbalize everything we do. Let's put your toys away, let's hang your coat up. A blind person could easily know everything that is happening in our house these days! But, I do think this is paying off because Rhea really seems to understand what we say to her and more and more she is finding ways to communicate right back to us.