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On the same day as the previous picture (21st of May 2010), Irina shot a couple of videos. Still very happy with her chair, here we have Anna following in her mummy’s ways by sitting on a chair a little oddly. Quite quickly she then becomes more interested in the camera Ira is holding…


This second, slightly longer clip starts with Anna again being reminded of how to properly (and safely) sit on a chair (a prime case of “do what I say, not what I do!). You can just hear the squeak the chair produces at 13 seconds, but it took a few months for Anna to become bigger (and weigh more), before the noise production wasn’t so hit and miss. Anna then notices some rubbish on the floor, and decides to help tidy up. Rejecting the offer from Irina to take the rubbish and sort it later, she heads straight to where a rubbish bag is sat by the front door. However, by this time she has found a new treasure – a nappy bag also waiting to be thrown out. It is eventually agreed upon that this too is rubbish, and so Anna decides to investigate the camera one more 🙂

This Sunday was part of a long weekend here in Kazakhstan, as well as Britain, and the weather was still hanging on to promises of summer time (this week it has got a little chillier). So out into the back garden of the in-laws’ house we went, and Anna seemed to thoroughly enjoy relocating sand from her sandpit onto the play area, her clothes, I think possibly her mouth a few times even. As with all PockeTwit based video uploads, the resolution is restricted to a crippling low (which YT then expands to around 320×240), so I’ve manually squashed the YouTube embed into a smaller area. It worked fine in full size, but you had to squint hard to ignore the blockiness that occurred. You’ll also catch a glimpse of the new windmill thingy that we bought for Anna when out meeting Ben, Dan & Lara the night before in the park.

OK, I’ve found and properly named all the videos from the 8th of May 2010, as promised. We’re still in the back garden in Chubary, and Anna has her pretty rainbow coloured dress on. (I’m thinking by the time I catch up with all of Anna’s photos and videos, I may just be able to immediately call a dress a dress, and a skirt a skirt. Mental block I’ve always had for some reason!)

Recognizing which tree is called what. Better than her Daddy already 🙂 Also able to navigate large gaps between paving slabs (better than her Daddy after a few drinks). Not yet certain of what counts as edible fruit, and what is dead plant stuff on the floor (ha, I’m not obsolete just yet!)

Next we have Anna searching for something. Not sure if even she knows what she wants.

Stari babushka (“old” babushka, ie Ira’s grandma) pointing out that Anna’s hat is no longer on her head…

The 4th of May 2010 saw Anna get up, have some breakfast, and want her Spot the Dog DVD on. When this request wasn’t met, she climbs up on the sofa. Looking back, she may have been attempting to say Dee-Dee, which is how she currently asks for a Dee-Vee-Dee to be put on. She opens the case. Giving up on Daddy helping, so returns to the DVD player to sort it herself. Anna lowers herself to the ground, and she knows which button ejects the DVD drawer!
Karra then overcomes her natural cautiousness around Anna as an eject mechanism has been activated, and therefore the hunt is afoot! Once Anna figures out the AV Input select procedure on our TV (she already knows how standby works), we’re going to have a lot more battles on our hands when it comes to how much DVD watching is too much!

Post-nappy change, we have Anna attempting to explain to me exactly what is required vis a vis a DVD should be put on… Shifting her attention to her MP3 player, which clumsy Daddy then drops near her foot. A new target is found, namely her water bottle, closely followed by my old mobile phone. Eventually Anna settles on some keys.

Anna in the Chubary house’s back garden, investigating some chairs and her noisy bird. This was recorded on the 25th of April 2010.

A few moments after the previous clip, here we have Anna, Irina, Natalya & Babushka all together.

Finally we have one of the first recorded instances of lollyollylolly (which happens to mean grape(s) in Anna’s language) on video. This was recorded a little later, on the 3rd of May 2010. I’ve been meaning to mention on this site for a while now, in the last month or so, Anna’s vocabulary has pretty much exponentially grown. Granted, a lot of the words are “just” her best effort at impersonating the sounds, but when she understands that she is close to the correct word, she seems happy to repeat it, and this certainly makes communicating with her a lot easier.

Continuing the theme of catching up with Anna’s picture and videos, here we have a couple of clips, taken on the same day as the last post’s pictures (24th April 2010). To any new-ish (well almost six months have passed since Anna’s media uploads) readers, I try and include the original date the pictures and movies were taken, as these posts are automatically imported over at Anna Merriman’s blog, and at some point I want to alter the posts’ dates to reflect the date in the picture/video, not when I actually got around to publishing them. I also need to go and manually embed about a year’s worth of video on her site, as the auto-import function doesn’t pick the videos up properly.

The first clip is of Anna playing hide and seek (and testing her walking skills a little) in the corridor outside the in-laws’ kitchen…

Once again practising balance and carrying an object, Anna helps Ira in the garden here.