CHICHARITO

Overall she seems like a happy kid, but she doesn't guffaw like this often, so I'm glad I caught it.

THROWING STICKS WITH DADDY

YO GABBA CHARACTERS

LITTLE PEOPLE ANIMALS

My mom got a ton of Little People animals on ebay.

NEW KITTY

All her stuffed animals are named after her father.

BBQ

I love how she says this word, even if she is a maniac who denies eating it.

RUBBER MANTIS

"ON THE SIDEWALK BUNNY EATING GRASS"

NODDY

She likes this obscure cartoon called Noddy, so I had to scour ebay for Noddy stuff for Christmas.  I just LOVE how she can't recall the name of the one character and asks herself what it is...

ANIMALS & FOOD

She was much better at naming her new animals than she was at naming the food!

BOX OF CARS

I had wanted to get her some recognizable vehicles for Christmas, so a friend with boys mailed us a box of all different kinds of trucks!

CHRISTMAS CLOTHES

Unlike normal kids, she seemed to really like getting clothes...

CHRISTMAS MORN

Since we're leaving to go out of town tomorrow, we did our Christmas this morning...

UPSIDE DOWN ONNA GROUND

CRACKER & NUTCRACKER

SMOOTHIE

We shared 24 oz of smoothie.  She can pack it away.

HOW ARE YOU?

Apparently in her world, when two friends meet, they scream "How are you?" and then one of them rides on the other one.

COUNTING TREES

Daddy came up with the idea to run laps around the living room and "count" Christmas trees.

CLEAN SANTA

SMILE, KITTY

She hates getting her picture taken, so we've been practicing making it fun by taking pictures of her stuffed animals first.

PICTURE BOOK

I had to split it into two because it wouldn't upload, because I hated to cut any of it out.

LUNCH

I've been trying to test her memory a little to see how long after a meal she can recount what we ate...

OUR BIG GIRL

Tonight she definitely seemed like a big kid instead of a baby.  We drove around looking at Christmas lights and she pointed out all the ones that were "so pretty."  Then we watched Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas and she enjoyed it and danced her tush off.

And then we headed up to bed...

PACIFIER

With all the big words she can say -- astronaut, commissary, grasshopper -- I was puzzled that she never said this word correctly.  But overnight she is doing it.

ROCK SANTA

She likes to rock her babies now, and I love how stiff-armed she is.

DEER

We had a whole slew of deer walk through our yard this morning.  They've come through at night when she's in bed but never during the day.

SOME PIG

Reading through Charlotte's Web...  I don't know why she has this fascination with saying that people have fallen down on the ground.  She says it all the time, even when it's not accurate.

G IS FOR GOBBLEDEGOOK

YO GABBA GABBA

I thought it was cute that the neighbors put up a Yo Gabba Gabba Christmas decoration...but now this is what I hear all day long...

SCREECHING WITH THE NEIGHBORS

It's amazing: it sounds even WORSE captured on video.

YO GABBA CHRISTMAS

The neighbors have Yo Gabba Gabba Christmas decorations...

PANCAKES & KETCHUP

I kept trying to elicit the word for my linguist friend, and a few times it came out differently...

NOW I KNOW MY E-I-O

Muddling through her ABC's.  She starts with Q.

PAH

I totally taught her to say "pah" instead of "pie."

CHRISTMAS TREE

IT'S A

MONITOR

I have been trying for a long time to get audio of her singing E-I-E-I-O in her crib after her nap, so today when she started singing, I ran for the camera.  No dice.  I can't be for sure because she has her pacifier in her mouth, but I think she just said, "Mommy be right back, using the laptop."  Which was totally true...

FOR DADDY

CYOOOOT

It's hard to hear with the camera across the room, but she kept pulling things out of the box and exclaiming "cyoooot" in this falsetto voice.

HER NAME

She's come a long way from June!

(And that is still my favorite video of her of all time.  She sounds so darned sweet...)

BOSSING GIGA AROUND

SWING THE BABY

My dad used to do this to me and freak everyone out.  He's not as young as he was thirty years ago -- he used to swing me all the way up over his head -- but it still looks like fun!

WIPE

I promise I wasn't actually using the toilet here; this was just a recreation of what happens every time I do.  She gets to use the toilet paper first.

ROUGHHOUSING

Her second cousin is visiting and she's not used to rough boy play!

BITE GIGA'S MUFFIN

PLAYING IN THE MORNING

NAMETAPES

YIKE A DIAMOND

She can bumble her way through "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"...

WALKING A CATERPILLAR

TRADITION

She knows when I get the peanut butter out to run sit on the staircase.  I like the wiggly, squirmy, goofy tradition of peanut butter banana cracker snack days.

I LIKE GIGA

I told her I love her and asked her to tell me she loves me.  She said, "I like Giga."  Then I kept tickling her and trying to get her to say it, which wound her way up and made her repeat it over and over...

This went on for like ten minutes, at which point she smiled and said, "I like Mommy."  Awwww.

LOUSY TOOTHBRUSHER

She stinks at brushing her teeth.

SHAPES

BREAKFAST CONVERSATION

She always seems to do her best talking when the camera isn't in her face, so I just left it on all through breakfast...

I HATE THE SCREECHY CRY

ANIMAL CALENDAR & GIGA'S BABIES

BEANS

If you don't know the song she is requesting, see here.  And the CD was a gift from our friend, hence the thank you.

WEARING MOMMY'S JAMMIES

RUN & JUMP

I LIKE MANTIS

KITTY HIDING

TWINKLE

We discovered tonight that she knows the tune and the "words" to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

CANNIBAL TEA PARTY

AT THE CASTLE

Some friends have a farm close by, so we went out there last night.  Their animals roam free, which provided opportunity for lots of wow moments.

Meeting goats:

Chasing ducks:

Counting rocks (decidedly less wow):

And getting chased by big dogs!

Also there were bunnies...

turkeys...

horses...

and a very friendly kitty.

What a fun house to visit!

CHATTY

Just some videos of her talking her head off today...

COLORBLIND

BOUNCE

They had a bounce castle at playgroup.

FAVORITE BOOK

We started out trying to get her to say her name, but it turned into reading her favorite book.  I am dangerously close to having the whole thing memorized, but she apparently is memorizing it too!

I LOVE MOMMY & DADDY

We've never heard her say she loves us without eliciting it, but we'll take it for now!

MOMMY, DO IT

Caught: one of the many daily instances of "Mommy, do it!"

P.S.  I didn't realize until my husband saw the video tonight that he plays Alligator vs Frog in the tub with her and makes them fight each other.  So apparently that's what she was doing and what she wanted me to do too.  Clever girl.

HI, WITCHES!

ALPHABET TRAIN

TRICK OR TREAT

She really got into the idea of the candy.  Playing with it, that is; I don't think she really knew what it was.

And then we gave her her first piece of candy.  A gummi bear.

BADGERING THE DOG

GOOD NIGHT BOOKS

ARMADILLO

BIG WORDS

TRAIN

MEATLOAF & AVOCADO

HAVE FUN, MOMMY!

HER FAVORITE BOOK

Too bad you can't understand anything she's saying because of that stupid pacifier...

I LIKE SCHOOL

She picked up the book tonight and said "I like school."  We tried so hard to get her to repeat it.  It was like pulling teeth.  Finally she threw us a bone.

HEAVY THIS

FISHERMAN

FUGGADUCK

I have been trying for two months to catch this on video, and I succeeded today!  Beforehand is a bunch of her daily talk...and then she points out a frog and duck...

TOO MUCH

This happens every meal but I've never caught it on camera (I was trying to catch her sandwich skills).  I guess one day she will stop gagging herself...

THROWS A FIT

Because of all the spider and mantis love in our house, now every time I take the camera out, she says, "Smile, big bug!"  She thinks we're going to take photos of our critters and throws a fit when we don't.

HOCKEY MAN

Her new favorite thing is this bobblehead doll her daddy got.

She wants to take him everywhere...

OLD MACDONALD

Of course she was singing her fool head off before I started the video.  But anyway, I think the outburst in the middle is "pig cat chicken"...

LEAVES

HUG BICYCLE HAT

WORM

She thinks nothing of petting a praying mantis, but for some reason she shudders at a worm?

FLICK THE WHALE

TWO MANTISES

She always counts 1-2-3-5-6.

GOTTEN WORSE

Her pronunciation of the snack has gotten way worse than even last month!

She didn't even want to attempt it at all...

FIRST TRICYCLE!

I had never even considered getting her her own bike until a neighbor pulled out their old trike...

FINALLY AN AUNT

Finally she is attempting to name her only aunt!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAPPY!

HUG & KISS

VOCABULARY

Showcasing her vocabulary...

PRETTY CHICKEN

E-I-E-I-O

She learned the song from Baby Einstein...

And we told the goats we were getting them some snacks, and then we realized we didn't have change.  Daddy's got jokes.

MUH-FEEN

She changed the way she says muffin again.  She's also fully in the phase where she says no to everything.

WHAT'S UP, DUCK?

This morning she walked into my mom's room, calmly picked up the book What's Up, Duck?, and started "reading" it.  (Reading = having memorized the photos, not actual reading of words.)  "Happy, sad, near, far, up, down, heavy, light..."  It was amazing.  She never even recites the book back to me when we read it, so I had never even remotely heard her do anything like this.

We spent all day trying to recreate it.

Seriously, we took like ten videos.  She wouldn't do it again.

She was so wound up right before bed but we managed to get her to recite some of the opposites to us.

EYES FINGERS NOSE

TEA PARTY

BAD TABLE MANNERS

'FIER BACK

If she says something cute with her pacifier in, and then you take it out and try to get the cute thing on video, then you usually get her asking for her pacifier back instead.

BIG GIRL

We got her a "kitchen helper" and she likes being a big girl and being up at the countertop.

SMILE

MU-MU'S BIRTHDAY

My grandmother used to let me ride the rides at Kmart, so in honor of what would've been her 100th birthday, we rode today.

GOOSE & HAY

We went to another farm with the neighbor kids.

SEATBELTS

Kids these days are definitely brainwashed about seatbelts. She opened her own travel high chair and tried for quite a while to fasten her own belt. (I was hiding behind the wall!)

LIGHT SWITCH

She does this a lot these days...

FEEBITS

Interesting way of pronouncing pancakes...

POO POO POTTY

Not the most exciting video we've ever made, but there are two things here: 1) She indicates that she has to go to the bathroom ("poo poo potty") but she never actually goes when we get to the potty. She got distracted along the way and never even made upstairs. And 2) I don't know if you can hear the banging of the garbage truck in the video, but her new phrase is "What that?"

Also, if I never hear the soundtrack to the Baby Galileo video again in my life, it will be too soon.

SMALL BITES & PIGTAILS

FARMSTEAD

Today we went to a children's farmstead and fed lots of animals...

COME ON

Last time at the park, I was coaxing her through the playground equipment by saying "come on...", so she was coaching herself today with the same phrase!

Then we tried the big equipment. She was not at all sure about heading through the tunnel...

But she figured it out right as Daddy was riding by after work, and she took the big slide all by herself!

CRACKER PEANUT BUTTER BANANA

FIRST REAL CUP!

Tonight was the first night we tried a real cup instead of a sippy cup. Within a few drinks, she was off and running!

SWINGING

She has a crazy weird memory. The last time we went to the swings, she was wearing a hat.

And this is a good example of something I've been saying for a while, that she can't keep too many syllables in her head at once!

FIRST POTTY MISHAP

I'm sure this will be the first of many! She said she wanted to use the potty, but of course that meant that she just wanted to sit, then hop up and run around, then sit, then flush, then pretend toys were using the potty, etc...and then she peed on the floor. And Daddy caught it on tape.

GEESE

We went to the lake on post to see the geese today. Naturally, she tried to hug them.

Something else spooked them later while we were on the dock, treating us to a beautiful flight.

WHERE'S SPOT?

BLACK EYE

She was getting really excited about going down the little slide several times, so I wanted to record her going down the big slide. Unfortunately, I recorded her giving herself a black eye.

But it didn't stop her, and she went down the big slide many times with zest!

CATERPILLAR

BIG FROG

WARMIN' UP

She usually warms up a bit more exuberantly, but you get the idea. She loves watching this show with her daddy.

TOBY!

ROCK OR MULCH

She had taken to calling everything a rock, so today she learned the difference between rocks and mulch. I was impressed with how quickly she figured out the difference...

CHEERIOS

She is fascinated by breakfast cereal, so we decided to feed her her own bowl of Cheerios and blueberries for the first time this morning...

THANK YOU, BD

HELLO

Instead of "hi," she has started saying "hello" recently. I think she's imitating me...do I really sound that ridiculous when I answer the phone?

SPIDER

I was trying to take a photo to identify this spider but I accidentally started a video instead...

TALKING TALKING ALL DAY LONG

PRETTY GIRL

PLAYGROUND

She has a love/hate relationship with the swing. She wants up, then she regrets it and wants down. Then she immediately wants up again.

It cracks me up that she learned my sense of "yucky." Everything is yucky :)

HI, DEER!

Look who we met on the way to the playground!

OBLIVIOUS

SIT. WAIT. GET HUGGED.

WHERE'S THE FROG?

The visual on this is terrible -- I really expected to find the frog quickly -- but it's a good example of the conversations we have all day long. She echoes a lot, but she also comes up with a lot on her own too.

I thought this was cute: She's learning to rock her baby dolls, so I thought it was funny she wanted to rock the rock.

HI BIG BUG!

HER FULL NAME

DADDY'S NEW TRUCK

YMCA

We went swimming at the Y with Pappy! It took her a minute to get used to getting water in her face and mouth, but then she had lots of fun.

The videos are not nearly as fun as it really was (poor MeMe). But she grinned the whole time, and learned the word "alligator."

Plus she got to dance to "Highway to Hell," which is not normal music listening in our household, heh.

She hollered "Slide!" the whole time we were there, but I am not sure if she really liked it once she went down.

Overall, it was a lot of fun and we'll definitely have to do it again.

FORK

She's getting better at both the fork and the talking! Note how much food she starts with...lord, that child can eat.

She did say "thank you" unprompted when I handed her the cookie, but I didn't have the camera on her so I had to reprompt!

SUPERFREAK

I don't know why I thought this was so darned funny...

FRED BIRD

I spent a long time today trying to get her to say Fred Bird...

This is the new thing: if something is all gone or we don't do it, she has to hug and kiss it. She hugs and kisses everything!

MEETING THE NEIGHBOR

MY GRANDPARENTS

SHE HUGS HER COTTAGE CHEESE

NIGH-NIGHT, SHOW

SLIDE

PING PONG

BYE BYE, GIGA

We called my mom from the road, and this is what a phone conversation looks like from the other end...

MAMA

The soundtrack of my life:

FROG

This is how she says the word "frog." Which is funny. For now...

THESE ARE THE PEOPLE IN MY FAMILY

GOOD GIRL

She is now strong enough to climb into the chairs, and then she wants to stand up, shout at herself to sit down, and then say pronounce herself a "good girl." Lordy loo. I was trying to catch this process on video, but she's also unsteady still and lost her balance trying to watch the dog. I want her to practice getting in and out of chairs, but man, it's nervewracking to see her plunge from the chair and grab her at the last second before her head crushes into the ceramic tile.

And yet she climbs right back up afterwards, hits the chair for making her fall, and calls herself a good girl for sitting...what a hoot she is!

FORWARD

She finally figured out how to propel herself forward instead of just backwards!

HI BUG!

I don't know if you can see the bug in the video, but an ant wandered into her sidewalk chalk area...

SCREAM GAME

IN THE GARDEN

Helping water the flowers:

And watering herself as well!

LEARNING HER LETTERS

OWL

MINISTRY OF SILLY WALKS

Granted, it was a downward incline, but she sure has started walking goofy lately. Dragging her toes and swerving.

AT THE PLAYGROUND

GIGA & DWIDWA

This is how she says Gramma and Grampa, heh.

GREAT-GREAT-GRANDFATHER'S BANKS

Playing with her great-great-grandfather's piggy banks. These things weigh a ton but are great fun to play with!

UNCLE'S DOGGY

ANIMAL FLASHCARDS

Practicing our animal video flashcards in the car...

AIR MATTRESS

Playing on the air mattress on our last night in her first home...

LAST NIGHT WITH THE OC

Our favorite things to do with them: kiss...

...and talk about animals!

TACO

Um, when did she learn the word "taco"? I swear, new words crop up so quickly these days...

PHRASES

I tried to catch some of her two-word phrases. I caught "Mama clean":

I also caught "Move, Charlie!"

And "yogurt all gone, cheese all gone":

FIRST TUNA FISH

I expected a yuck face, not a happy dance.

VAIN PANTS

MY FAMILY

She's getting better at identifying her family. Except for her grandfathers. She needs to spend more time with them!

SIT DOWN

She yells at herself to sit down, but she listens to herself about as well as she listens to us.

DAIRY QUEEN

Sharing Daddy's birthday ice cream...
(Sorry the dishwasher was running.)

TOOTHBRUSH

At least she doesn't just suck the toothpaste out anymore, but she kinda needs to learn to move the brush instead of her head. She also needs to stay in the bathroom instead of wandering around the house brushing.

SHE'S BECOMING A HANDFUL

THE OC

I have many movies of my daughter saying my favorite words, but I also have favorite words that her best friend says. So before we move I wanted to make some videos of the two of them so I won't ever forget how her friend sounds either.

My favorite of all time is butterfly: "wawa"

I also get a kick out of how much she's into airplanes: "apu"

She says "I know" and "I don't know" with really funny inflection too!

It's funny that they know many of the same words but say them so differently.

And I never want to forget how the OC skips.

She's going to be a fun big sister when her brother arrives at the end of the year.

And this is my favorite of them all. We're sure gonna miss our BFFs.

HAT GAME

She likes playing with hats now and putting them on everyone but herself...

WALKING THE STAIRS

She now wants to hold your hand and take the stairs standing instead of on her knees. She's better at going up than down.

BREAKFAST

She says "cereal" now, fairly well. Also another shot of her saying "muffin," which NEVER gets old.

FOR MY LINGUIST FRIEND

I took video of her a month ago saying "milk."

Somewhat overnight, "milk" gained a second syllable. It's really changed a lot. I wonder what it will become next.

ANIMAL RUNDOWN

This is the perfect book because it's all animals that she knows!

FAMILY FLASH CARDS

She has decided it's great fun to say Unca Mai, so now that's what she calls everyone. She also went through these once perfectly before this absurd rendition...figures.

BABY DOLL WANTS JUICE

QUACK PIGGY DOGGY

GI-GA

Finally she says something approximating Gramma...

UNCA MAI

A quick hello to her sick uncle...

ELEPHANT

She has developed the strangest way to say elephant:

PEEKABOO

NEVER TOO YOUNG FOR CHORES

I'm totally gonna teach her to dust. Also catch at the end when she's looking for her pacifier, which she now calls "fire."

GOGGLES

I can't figure out how to turn the video, unfortunately, but she was having fun playing in the backyard with the dog.

COOKIE

NOT SO IDIOCRACY

She's gotten much better at the shape sorter.

SPINNING WITH MEME

WATER

Glad to see she's not afraid of water...

DANCING & SPINNING

DIAPER

She wants to assist with her own diaper now.

LION & FROG

Her latest word is "lion" and she says it all day long.

NOSES & MONKEYS

THIS IS A SONG ABOUT ELMO

I love that she's starting to imitate this video. I love that she calls him "Melmo" and repeats "no" when he says it, and shakes her head and says "bring-bring" like Elmo does. But what I think is really clever is that when Adam Sandler sings what it's NOT a song about, she shakes her head no. I can't believe she understands that "no" and "it's not about" are the same concept. That seems advanced to me.

I LOVE YOU...DADDY

She just wouldn't say it all in a row :)

MUFFIN

She has the most nasal "muffin" in the world. I never want to forget how she said it...and how excited she'd get in anticipation.

SPARKLERS

I thought I was buying real sparklers, but these were totally lame. Thus the video is totally lame too.

At least Charlotte giggled a little...once Daddy could finally get the dumb things lit.

And the "pops" were only mildly interesting. All in all, kinda a dud for 4th of July. Next year should be better.

FIRST TEA PARTY

MOMMIES AND DADDIES

The difference between mommies and daddies is that I never would've thought to pelt our child in the face with a ball. And therefore I would've missed out on how strangely much she loves it.

HEARTBEAT

Today I started thinking about next week, which made me fondly remember how this little, blurry, blinking blob became my daughter.

YELLOW

Yesterday we watched a Baby Einstein video about colors. Today she did this. Correlation or causation?

HER NAME VS THE DOG'S

BUMP-BUMP

Daddy asked, "Did you know she could bump-bump down the stairs on her own?" Uh, no. But she can!

I LOVE MY DOGGY

BREAKFAST FOOD

She knows her breakfast!

CARPET AND TILE

She wants to bring her books and toys in and then put them in the bathtub, so I have a strict "no books in the bathroom" policy now. Watch her toe that line between carpet and tile...

EYES, NOSE, MOUTH

Right before I started this video, she pointed at the baby and said, "Eyes, nose, ears." So of course she won't do it again and I have to drag it out of her.

She's also started doing that cute thing where her toys walk and dance.

TONGUE FUN

HOTEL FUN

TROUBLE

I've been trying to upload videos for three days now, and Blogger is not cooperating. I have no idea why.

PRAIRIE DOG

I recorded this show about prairie dogs, and she was really interested in the critters. However, I wish she had a longer attention span with TV! She's got about two minutes in her before she toddles off and does something else. Doesn't give me much of a break.

We kept the show running and a bit later she got interested again for another minute. Also, I think this is the first time I've ever heard her say "car."

TESTING LIMITS

Unfortunately, she usually doesn't give up this easily!

CHEESE & MUFFIN

She's getting better at pronouncing her food words. And I've heard her say "muffin" better than this, but apparently not for the camera.

MALT-O-MEAL

She went straight into the bathtub after breakfast.

WATER HOSE

I HEART MY DOGGY

She is getting close to saying the dog's name really well!

SWIMMING

Despite the fact that they looked like they were having fun, the videos are pretty boring.

FIND THE MONKEY

SPAGHETTI

Spaghetti night was a success!

PLEASE

She's learning to say please (finally). We're working on "help" too.

WHINING AT MY BFF

This whine, this is about ten hours of my day. It means she's unhappy, she's happy, she wants to show you something, she wants help with something...it is constant. It drives me batty.

More whining. I'd give anything if she could just say, "I want to hear the music." But note at the end how both girls call each other by their name, both in their own special way of saying it.

SPRINGFORM PAN

She spent all evening playing in a springform pan.

GOATS AND GORILLAS

Feeding the giraffe made her shudder, but by the time we got to the goat, she was a pro.

And the gorilla thought she was a hoot.

FIRST KETCHUP

MIMIC

OTTOMAN

She's starting to climb on everything, and since she's never really fallen, she's fearless. Until today when she fell off our bed. But that still didn't stop her from climbing on the moving ottoman.

FIVE

She loves to repeat the number five, and since we count every single time we go up the stairs, she now calls going up the stairs "five." Heh. Every time, it's "wanna go upstairs?" "Five!"

And as eager as she normally is to rush up the stairs, you'd never know it from this absurd example we shot the other day.

VANITY, THY NAME IS PANTS

SAYING GOODBYE TO DADDY

GIGGLING WITH WINSTON BEAR

She learned to climb up on the sofa today...

GIGGLING WITH MEME

PEEKABOO BOOK

This is her favorite book by far, and she knows it so well by now that she flies through it: open all the pages, touch the textured item, and then clap at the end when it's done!

MEME

ELMO'S SONG

She can sing the la la la-la lines of "Elmo's Song" now...

KISSING FAT-HEADED BABY

KISS AND SNIFF

She's learning to imitate so quickly! I taught her to kiss in about two minutes today.

LOVE DADDY

CHEESE

My family remembers me saying "cheese" with much gusto. She is holding back here; she normally says it from her belly too. Her love of cheese is bred in the bone.

GLIDER

Yesterday she climbed up on the futon. This is a little higher, but she nearly made it.

CARTOON ROBOT

I keep trying to get video of her making what I call her "cartoon robot" noises. She does this babbling that sounds like the beeble-booble of a cartoon robot. You can hear a little of it in both of these clips.

MISS PANTS IS POORLY

Poor, sleepy, cranky baby. This was 8:30 AM, for heaven's sake.

SLAM DANCE

I love her violent dancing.

PLAYLIST

She just wants to dance! And push buttons. Unfortunately she can't do both.

HUNGER TANTRUM

MONKEY SHORTS

I have gotten kinda fascinated with checking old photos to see what she looked like a year ago. I can't believe how much she's changed...and how squeaky she was. There was a reason for this blog's name!

Also it was really cute that when we were watching this video, she heard me say nigh-night and she started repeating it.

FOLLOWING IN DADDY'S FOOTSTEPS

TAKING HERSELF FOR A WALK

SOO-EE

We took the girls to the fair tonight. I love that we were watching pigs at a fair :)

SHE SAYS HER NAME!

She normally only calls herself "shah", so I was stunned to get this out of her for the first time today!

HER OWN CHAIR

PUT IT AWAY

I think it's fantastic that she learned this lickety-split. She was taking things out of the drawer, I said "put it away" and helped her put it back in, then I praised her to high heaven, and she totally got it right away. Yay!

FIRST SKYPE WITH DADA

BECOMING MY MOTHER

WALK THE DOG

NAPTIME

She has started conflating sleeping and eating...I guess they both feel good :)

EASTER

She was much more interested in stuffing her face with the puffs inside than hunting for the eggs.

SMART COOKIE

I love this video. She decided she wanted to play with the ball popper, so she moved other things out of the way, got it set up, dances to the music, gathers the errant balls...smart cookie! And I finally caught her "woah" on video!

MOO

She's got barking down, and she just started mooing. We are working on quacking now...

WOAH HORSEY!

IMITATE

She's learning to imitate Daddy...

TWINKLE TWINKLE

She discovered her talking book today by herself, so I grabbed the camera while she listened to her great-grandmother read the same page over and over!

SOBBING FOR AN HOUR

Wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?

This was my morning. She basically cried from 8-9 AM. I had intended to use the time to pack for our trip next week but I couldn't even hear myself think. So instead I filmed her sobbing for an hour.

END OF DAY MELTDOWN

End of the day + toy she can't reach = total meltdown that starts and stops on a dime

IN THE YARD

She's getting better at walking in the grass! (Not that we have grass in our backyard...)



Just a few days ago, she fell and got tickled :)

HEAD SLAPPER

I was trying to get her to do the motions to "Itsy Bitsy Spider," but instead she did this new head-slapping thing she's been doing lately.

SOUTH OF THE BORDER

Today we went to South of the Border, a tourist trap on the NC/SC border. We went to the Reptile Lagoon, and while her attention span was better than when we went to the zoo, I still wish she had thought the animals were cooler. She was just as interested in rocks and walking around.



Just walking around...in front of a gigantic gorilla and giraffes.

CAR TRIP

Giggling in the car on the way home.

LICENSE TO CHILL

HUNGRY & THIRSTY

NIGH-NIGHT

I can always tell when she is starting to get tired because she falls down more and it makes her super sad. Nowadays, it is so freaking cute that she will say nigh-night when she's tired. Like tonight, Daddy was trying to read her a story and she was wriggling out of his lap and saying nigh-night, like "Ugh, let me go to bed!"

BYE, ADORING PUBLIC

GIVE THE DOG A BONE

We did this all evening. Thank goodness the dog is so good with her...

DADDY'S MUMMUM

Daddy got a granola bar and Pants got extremely jealous.

A PUP & A TURTLE

SCRATCH

HIP HOPPIN' BUNNY

ROOM TO ROOM

DANGER

I promise I'm not beating her off camera here. I was trying to get her to do the moves to "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and she started touching the shredder instead. I grabbed her fist tightly in my hand and told her no...and this is what happens when she gets in trouble. Such a drama queen!

WOOF WOOF

SPRAWL

She was doing this funny thing tonight...it wasn't falling but it was intentionally sprawling on the ground.

DANCING TO YO GABBA GABBA

PIVOT

She discovered how to pivot turn today at the play place. I think it's really cute. But she never got the hang of stepping onto the red floor mats.



And I love how we now have kids who are old enough to just toddle off around the corner!

TICKLING THE MILK

I love how she does this thing with her hands like she's tickling the milk. She didn't do it to me, so I'm not sure where it came from.

SPOON WORK

She was making that guffawing noise for a while before I could grab the camera.

HI

LOVE

CHASING THE PUP

She loves chasing Daddy and the dog around the living room. It wears everyone out.

BACK IN THE SADDLE

GANGBUSTERS

She's turning into a real daredevil with her walker, plowing through the living room like gangbusters.



But sometimes she gets a little too much energy, and that's when she ends up with a black eye.

WITH MY BFF

SWINGING

NEW STUFF

Several things going on here...

1) more walking
2) don't know who she thought was on the other side of the door
3) working on "no" (fairly unsuccessfully)



4) the concept of the "drive-by hug," which I get lots of these days
5) turning the cup the right way
6) baby sign language

CHEESY

She has started doing this really cheesy grin all day long...

GETTING BETTER AT WALKING

SHAKEN BABY

Playing with Daddy...paternal grandparents, note the shoes.

HUG THE DIAPERS

She hugs everything but people...

IMPROVED WALKING

The walking has accelerated by leaps and bounds in the past week.

POP TOY

Playing with the toy her uncle gave her for her birthday.

TUMMY-TUMMY

In my family we called this mode of transportation "tummy-tummy."

BIRTHDAY CAKE

FIRST WALK!

She's been taking one step for a couple of days now, but this is her first series of steps...and on her birthday, no less! (Oh, and the grand finale is pretty funny.)

THE BIG SHOW

This is the clip to end all clips. She learned to do the motions to "Itzy Bitsy Spider," then she claps, then she blows kisses to her adoring audience, and then she hugs her Gramma.

BIG SOCKS

We were fascinated that she knew what to do with my socks! She's getting so clever.

SHEEP NUNCHUCKS

She loves this sheep my friend got her, and we're impressed with her balance as she whips it around.

LEARNING BOUNDARIES...KINDA

WASH, STRETCH, HUG

Showing off her new tricks...selectively.

HUGS

MeMe taught her to give her stuffed animals hugs...

LIKE GUY SMILEY

I just wanted to get some nice video of her playing with her MeMe, and disaster struck. She ended up with a big bruise on her face from this fall...

SHE HATES BUBBLES

We thought it would be neat to buy bubbles and blow them in the tub. Apparently it scared her to death and she cried the whole rest of the bath. Whoops.