Baby Duck had a sleepover at my aunt's house last night, so I've had a rather interesting day.  It is very rare that I get to spend so much one-on-one time with Ladybug.  She's very smart and is starting to talk a lot more.  She likes to do puzzles (especially a fish one from her grandparents) and to draw.  E picked up Baby Duck's Magna Doodle and started to draw faces for her.  He named features as he went:  eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, teeth...  
    Once she discovered that these drawings could be erased and redone, she made him draw over and over again.  She'd say, "Eyes... moush... oh, no!  Nos!  Nos!  Uh, oh!  Teesh!" until it was done to her liking.  When E went off to do something else, I took over on the drawing.  First I showed her how I could trace around her hand.  We had fun making pictures from layers and layers of her hand in different places for a while.  Then I started drawing rudimentary pictures of things she could name so she could practice her words.  We did a ball, a dog, a duck, a shoe, a block, and a truck, among other things.  Some even were elaborated upon:  after she said dog she panted a bit.  The truck got the addition of a "beep, beep".  Some she still just identified by the sound they made (moo, neigh, meow, etc.).  I particularly enjoyed the response I got when I drew a bunny.  "Hop, hop!"  she shouted.  
    Then I decided to challenge her.  I drew a flower.  I have never heard her say "flower", nor does it make a noise.  It doesn't even have a signature action like the bunny-- what would she do?  Would she get mad and give up?  Not my Ladybug!  She looked at it and exaggerated the biggest, most dramatic sniff you can imagine!  I was quite proud of her ability to use her resources to communicate.  At this point I just got silly.  I drew a peanut butter sandwich, which you can imagine looks like little more than a lumpy square with a slight 3-D quality to it when drawn on a Magna Doodle.  She smiled, started smacking her lips, and took me to the kitchen.  She's currently enjoying her own peanut butter sandwich-- a delicious way to end our game.  I hope I get to spend time with her like this more often!

CL