More "Firsts"

It's fun learning what Princess knows and what she doesn't, and being able to teach her things. Here are some more "firsts" that we get to experience with her:

Climbing a tree. Monkey crept right up to the top branch, but Princess didn't quite know what to do and was a little scared at first.

Slides at the pool and the park even seemed "new" to her...but she soon started zooming down on her own and saying "meggitzen!" (again!) each time.

 Cutting with scissors, and especially using glue seemed like the most amazing things to her when I showed her. She caught right on to making a paper chain, and I found her making her own 6' long chain the next day...and working on it again the next day...she LOVES the glue stick for some reason!

 The laptop was of no interest to her at first, and she had no curiosity about it. But after showing her some animal games (after searching for a while, I finally found some simple games that taught numbers, colors, and animals, and mouse clicking and dragging) http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/animals.htm she started to point to the screen when I asked her "where is the pig?" etc, and after much practicing, she can now click and drag with the mouse.

Speech progress:  I did a bunch of research online about speech therapy at home, and came up with some great free resources. We are working on making the sounds "s", "sh", "z" and "r"....and got some great ideas here: http://www.speechlanguageandbeyond.com/Products.html
I made some charts and mimed in Hunglish that she gets a sticker every time she makes a great effort at making these "new sounds". There's something magical about a sticker I guess, and this totally motivated her to try even more.
We also tried a new trick using a straw - holding it in front of her closed teeth and making the air go through the straw, and not around it...teaches how to hold your tongue for the "s" sound. It actually worked! 

Coolest thing that happened today:
This little black kitten walked right into our apartment from the doggy door tonight. He is the friendliest, cuddliest little guy. 

We gave him some lunch meat and milk, and played with him for a while. He was "nagyon farraht" (very tired) and took a nap while we all took turns holding him...

Daddy said "he's not staying the night!" ...but I left the doggy door open and he just didn't want to leave. He crawled right up in bed with the kiddos, curled up next to Monkey and went to sleep! Now how do you expect me to kick him out now!? I'll just let him take a teensy little nap...then I'll take him outside. :(  ...or maybe in the morning.

Princess was scared at first...we'd been told she was very afraid of cats because she had been bitten and scratched before. She warmed up to this little guy and played with string and petted him after a couple minutes. Now she seems to really like him.