"NO"

Alea's new favorite word is NO.  For a while it came out "na" but she's had lots of practice and it is now a very clear and very deliberate NO.  It is now the answer to any question we ask her.  "Are you taking a bath?" (As she's splashing water out of the tub) "no".  "Do you want to get dressed?"  "no".  Are you eating your dinner? (As she's shoveling food into her mouth) "no".   "Is that your blankie?" (pointing to it) "no".  She, also, has been saying "no" back to us when we ask her to do something.  It is so hard not to laugh when she answers this way as we don't want her to get used to the idea of saying no to us.  Yesterday I noticed that she tells Lily no as well.  If Lily jumps onto the couch she says "no no no" and points her finger in Lily's face following it with a "dow Lillil".   She's heard us tell Lily to get down but to actually take it upon herself to do it without being prompted is really funny.  It makes us realize, yet again, that she watches and listens to everything we do and say.  Children this age are like little sponges which makes our parental responsibility that much greater.  A developmental book that we have been reading says to think of them as little cave men.  They don't automatically know things, they explore and discover in order to learn and we are their behavioral models.  Wow, that is huge.  We love watching Alea learn new things and surprise us with old things we didn't know she knew.  For example, we tried teaching her a few signs several months ago but weren't that consistent with it, however, we went over Please, Thank you and All done with her during her meals and would occasionally get an "all done" from her but never a please or a thank you.   Well, the other day on the way home from Tulsa she asked me if she could have a "byeee" (bite) of my snack so I said " say please" and she signed "please" and it continued for several more bites.  Amazing.  They are so much smarter than we give them credit for sometimes.  What will she do next?   Here is a video of Alea eating chocolate pudding for the first time and expertly showing off her "no" skills.  Enjoy.  Oh, and we are practicing the word YES which sounds more like "eeethh" at the moment.