Dear Grandma Cl__ton

Anytime a post title is addressed to Grandma Cl__ton, we mean that no one else may find this interesting except for Heidi's grandmothers. Read on (and watch) only if you want...

Heidi has entered a new stage of expression lately. Her vocabulary grows by leaps and bounds daily in both English and ASL--even when she makes up her own signs for Engilsh words. We don't know if it is her obsession with Daddy, her new-found toys, or the excitement in the air from all the Christmas festivities going on. Any way you look at it, though, she is full of life and energy.

Here are some videos that describe what we mean:

1. Heidi just discovered her turtle in our yard. She doesn't know it yet, but inside the turtle is sand. We'll get all the use out of the outside of the turtle before we show her the inside. :-) (Notice that at the end of this clip Heidi announces to the camera that she is going potty.)

2. Trent told Heidi to "hug the turtle" so he could get some cute footage. As you see, Heidi tries... Then she decides that her efforts were "sweet." Trent didn't get what she was saying (even though she was signing it. {Trent says: she was signing it "backward." "Sweet" is signed by stroking your chin downward with your 4 fingers}). When he got down to her level--and after repeated attempts to get Trent to understand what she was saying--Heidi goes to Trent to sign "sweet" on HIS face!

3. This one is long; the best parts are the beginning and end. Heidi came up with the random idea of walking around like a hunchback. Every now and then she hunches over and shows us the walk. At the end of the clip Heidi plays the piano and starts singing "Book of Mormon Stories."