Baby I'm amazed by you

My beautiful, smart, amazing daughter has been doing some really extraordinary things all of a sudden. Besides crawling so fast she looks like she has wheels strapped on, her mental development has just about blown me away.
I do my very best to provide a nurturing and educational environment, obviously by showering Kiley with as much love and attention as I can she will let me give her, and by allowing her to get into and explore just about everything and explaining what she is getting into. Plus, part of our night time routine is reading a book and has been since she was just a few weeks old. I have to admit, I am not a big book reader and it's never been my favorite activity of the day especially when she squirms and wants to play with the curtain or kick the book out of my hands and I know she could care less about the stupid book. But I realize the importance of reading to your child, giving them a good start, and I can really see the benefits of having such a regular routine. I've also been working with her on some signs-specifically "more", "food", "drink", "all gone", and a little "please", and "thank you"-which btw she picked up on "all gone" impressively fast.
Lately, I feel like everything Chad and I have done is really paying off, and I'm sure day care does a good job of providing an educational environment too. This weekend Chad let me have a morning to sleep in, and when I came downstairs I watched as Kiley would stop what she was doing, look at her daddy and start doing the slow golf clap, then when he would do it back it was like she just saw fireworks! And ever since then she will do it when she wants dads approval or attention.
That same day I noticed that when I would do a sign she would look at the object I was signing about. Like I would sign "more" and she would look at her food and open her mouth, if I signed "drink" she would look at her sippy cup.
But the most amazing thing was when I was reading her a book called "What Does Baby do?" I could pretty much see her processing the words I was reading and the pictures she was seeing. One page says "Grandma and Grandpa get into their car. What does baby do? Baby blows them a kiss!" I helped her blow a kiss and she started laughing and trying to do it herself! Another page says, "Baby sees a doorbell. What does baby do? Baby pushes the button! ding dong" I started pointing and poking the picture of the doorbell saying ding-dong and before I know it out comes Kiley's little pointed finger poking the same picture! Then as I get to the last page I read "Daddy leaves for work." I watch as Kiley looks downstairs at her dad, I read "What does baby do? Baby waves bye-bye!" And without me showing her anything she waves downstairs to Chad! She has waved before but not without showing her how. I absolutely couldn't believe it!
I try to pretend like Kiley is not smarter/cuter/better/sweeter/more advanced than other babies, but sometimes it is HARD not to spend all day bragging about how amazing she is; )

I love you baby girl!