The World of Make Believe

The flurry of Christmas gifts brought lots of "pretend play" sets for little bug, like fake food, microwave, tea set, etc. So daddy has taught her little sounds to make while she's playing make believe. She makes the "shh" sound of tea pouring from her teapot when she "pours" a cup of tea, then she gulps down the tea saying "gulp, gulp", then says "ahhh" and rubs her belly exclaiming "mmm-hmmm". I hope the sound effect habit is broken by the time she's a teenager, or dinners out are going to be hard to explain.

Ready for a Nap

Today little bug was running around all morning playing with all of her toys, then she decided that she needed a nap. She walked around the house until she found all three of her sleep sacks and her bear. Once she had the sleep sacks and the bear all piled up on top of herself, she snuggled into her bean bag chair and closed her eyes.

Dizzy Bug

Hope everyone had a fantastic turkey day! Ours was much smaller than usual, but I think we still cooked up as much food as we normally do when we have 4x as many people here. Little bug is now a huge help in the kitchen, and by help I mean that she wants to stir everything, pull on your legs to get picked up when you have raw meat on your hands, and no matter where she is in the house she can hear an oven door open that apparently she needs to run to.

I started letting her stir up the pies that I made the day before Thanksgiving. She did great stirring the pecan pie, but considering that it is mostly molasses and corn syrup she can't really toss too much out of the bowl. Then I was making a pumpkin pie so I decided to let her keep mixing. I was just telling daddy what a big girl she was turning into, when 'whap' she swung the spoon out of the bowl and slammed about a cup of the pumpkin pie mixture all over my pants. That ended her culinary career (this week anyway).

She has a new trick that apparently goes into hyper-drive when she gets a lot of sugar in her system (i.e. letting her eat out of the dairy whip can). She likes to spin around the living room in a circle until she gets so dizzy that she'll stare at the carpeting (I think it is to see the flowers move in her self-induced hallucinogenic trip). Since she is standing still to stare at the carpeting she invariably falls down. This would be entertaining since our furniture is soft and child proof, but the hardwood floors aren't. So as soon as we see dizzy bug in action, we run over to get in the catching position to make she doesn't take an off-carpet dive.

I thought that part of the spinning and staring at the floor was because she was obsessed with her new Dora slippers that we got her because her socks were sliding all over the floors, and she pulled off the gripper socks whenever we'd get them on her. But apparently she'll spin in Dora slippers or without.

Little bug had a great time today running all over the house and watching football while she tightly gripped her own football as if she was going to get called into the game somehow.

Got the Moves

Rocking out to Hannah Montana means we have to come up with a dance routine. Little bug's dance moves consist of every move she knows how to do done in various sequences. She stomps her feet, waves her arms around, does "head, shoulders, knees and toes", then spins in a circle. Repeat. I think she is now qualified to work alongside Paula Abdul.

Clean Up...Not So Much

After continuously watching little bug tear the house apart night after night, I decided that I'd teach her to clean her toys up after herself. Yes, all of you experienced parents can start laughing now.

I figured I've been picking up after her for almost 16 months, so she should be ready. Plus she likes putting things into bags, so a win-win, right? Here's how it went down. Before I put little bug to bed, she had pulled everything out of the lower two shelves of our kitchen cabinet and had tossed/stacked/hidden items all over the living room and dining room. I picked up a few things and then showed little bug how she could put the paper packets of grits back in their box. She put one in and I cheered for her, so she ran and got another one, cheer, that's when she figured out how to outsmart the system.

She would put the packet of grits halfway into the box and I would prematurely cheer for her, then she'd pull the packet out and run around the kitchen island. She'd run back to me and repeat the cycle. Needless to say, the rest of the evening went the way she prefers, which is her watching as I pick up the rest of her mess.

From Worst Audience to Best!

Back when little bug was a baby we used to tell her our jokes/sarcasm and she would just stare at us. I would always tell daddy that she was my worst audience ever. That has all changed with the phase she is in now. If you laugh, she laughs like she doesn't want to be left out of the joke. Today she was in her car seat and daddy and I were talking, I laughed at something he said and we heard giggles from the back seat. Too funny.

We took her to the aquarium today which was nice and uncrowded. I think a lot of folks are starting to hit the malls. Daddy dropped us off at the front since it was cold, and when little bug and I walked into the aquarium she yelled, "whoah" and took off running to the wall of fish. She kept pointing to the fish and giggling. Then after a few minutes she realized that daddy wasn't with us. So she started yelling, "da-da!". I picked her up and walked her back to the main entrance so she'd see him as soon as he walked in.

Then I realized as people were giving me strange looks, I'm holding a kid that looks nothing like me and she's yelling for her dad as I inch us back to the main entrance. I'm sure security had a camera focused on me if I took a run for it. Luckily daddy walked through the door and she ran for him and then pointed out all the fish again.

When we were having dinner tonight, we had biscuits that little bug likes as a side. Once they hit the table, she kept pointing and whining that she wanted them - not understanding that they were too hot. She finally started yelling, "pan, pan" and pointing at the bread. She didn't think it was funny this time when we starting laughing at her barking commands to us in Spanish.

Jumping Bean

Last night when daddy was leaving to go to class, we stood by the window to wave goodbye. Once his car had left and was out of site, little bug said "bye-da". She was a dancing, jumping and running machine. She ran around our kitchen island four times, and then she said 'whoah' and sat down as if she wore herself out.

We had a big dance party jumping around the living room and then she bounded up the stairs and made me close the gate behind her. When I take her upstairs to go to bed, I tell her to say, good-night fish to our fish tank. Tonight she closed the gate to the stairs, turned around and said, 'bye-fish'.

Too Cool

Little bug is doing much better and is back to tearing the house apart. She's sleeping now but still waking up in the middle of the night just enough to make daddy and I look like zombies. Hopefully she'll get back to sleeping through the night again quickly!

Now that her legs are longer, she has perfected the art of clinging to your waist so you can't put her down. I can walk around the house without even holding onto her, and she clings to my neck and wraps her legs around my waist. Cute, until you try to lay her down to change a diaper.

When I kiss her good-bye in the morning she now puts one arm behind my head, and her other arm around daddy's neck and she makes us kiss each other. Then she laughs as if it grosses her out.

I've also realized that she's getting too cool for us. She was standing on the fireplace, singing Hannah Montana songs so I stood next to her and started singing and dancing. She looked at me like I was crazy, and she shoved me off the ledge. I've already started embarrassing her. Success.

Sleep Deprivation Weekend

Thursday night/Friday morning little bug woke us up at 1 am after she had gotten sick in her crib. She got sick all over her sleep sack, sheets, and daddy since he had picked her up. We put her in bed with us, but no amount of brushing her teeth and changing her clothes could get rid of the stench so we put new sheets on her bed and put her back down by herself. Daddy stayed home with little bug on Friday.

During the day she acted fine, except that she wasn't eating. Not even pot stickers for lunch when we went to a Chinese restaurant with friends. Little bug usually can eat her weight in anything that resembles a dumpling, so we knew there was something wrong. She was up crying a little bit on Friday night and then moped around the house most of the day on Saturday, again, not eating. I called the doctor's office and the nurse said I was around the 10th caller with the same symptoms, it was only 9am. We gave her pedialyte which she hated - so we switched her over to lactose free milk to try to not upset her tummy.

Then Saturday night she decided to wake up every few hours and cry unless we were holding her, and she was out of her bed. We finally got her to go to sleep in our bed, but that means random kicks to the ribs. Needless to say, I'm thankful that she's feeling better today and I have my fingers crossed that she'll sleep tonight.

On a lighter note, she's figured out how to climb onto the couch by herself. I was doing dishes and usually can let her run around without checking on her. She was quiet (never good), so I looked in the living room and she was laying on the couch staring at the ceiling. She didn't like the 'here's how to get off the couch' lesson as much as she likes climbing up on it. She also learned how to take off her sleep sack. I went to get her up from a nap since I heard her talking to herself and walked into her room to find her standing up, talking to her stuffed bear, with her sleep sack folded up in the corner of her crib.

Duck, Duck, Duck... Goose!

Or at least that is what I tried to teach little bug to say tonight. It sounds more like "uck, uck, AHH" - but she got the concept down. Tonight was ladies night since daddy was off at class, so the house looked like a tornado that met up with a hurricane after a landslide hit it by the time I put her to bed.

I think her favorite "game" tonight was pulling the coffee filters out of the box, and throwing them through the baby gate to see them float down the stairs. Between that and jumping around in our recycle box of bottled water bottles the night was a success.

Now that she is around an 8-month old during the day (the nanny is branching out), little bug has started trying to get more attention. She'll fake fall on the ground and try to catch your attention. If you don't look, she crawls around like a baby and tugs on your pants to get picked up. Then in the next minute she wants to sing Hannah Montana songs. She's already conflicted at 15 months.

Little Bug's Choice

When we put little bug to bed each night, she gets to pick a toy out of her toy box to sit with her while we read her a bedtime story. She stands there and stares at her toys for the longest time each night, and you can see the wheels turning inside her head trying to figure out which toy she wants.

Recently she's been picking a little dress that a friend of mine made for one of little bug's dolls. Little bug doesn't pick the doll, she just wants to sit with the dress.

And last night she picked a box top. If this trend continues, this will save us a lot of money on toys this Christmas.

Trickery

To celebrate Halloween, little bug had a doctor's appointment. I thought she was just getting a flu shot along with her normal check-up, but I forgot that she was getting another MMR shot, whoops! Her Halloween started off with a big trick, a shot in each leg! But she's doing great, she's 31.5" tall (in the 75th percentile for height) and 21 lbs 15 oz (putting her in the 25th percentile for weight). So we need to feed her some more dim sum to chunk her back up again!

After the doctor's appointment she got a nice treat - chicken nuggets from Chick-Fil-A which is the only way she'll eat chicken. Then we went to our friend's house to dress her up and let her play with the girls. She's skipped right over the Elmo phase and wants to do exactly what the older girl's do - which is sing & dance to Hannah Montana songs. So we all chased each other around the front yard for a while and then let them have a dance party.

We headed to Chili's around the corner for dinner, and little bug was playing with the coasters. She kept handing them to the waiter while he was trying to take our order. Then she tossed her arm over the side of the high chair and leaned back, nodding her head as she checked out the restaurant like she owned the place. She looked like a big pimpin' little ballerina.

The Long Goodbye

Little bug and I were playing and she looked at me, waved bye-bye, gave me a kiss and then left the room. She came back in a few minutes carrying a box of diapers. Then did the same bye-bye routine and left. She kept repeating this bringing me books, a hairbow and finally a bag. We loaded her books, diaper and hair bow into the bag and I asked her if she was going to run away from home. She said, "mmm-hmmm", nodded her head yes, gave me a kiss and toddled down the hallway.

She's also started using coasters. If she is going to put her cup of milk on a side table, she grabs a coaster and puts her cup on it.

Where's the Car?

Little bug and I were walking out of the grocery store to find our car in the parking deck while daddy paid for the groceries.  She was holding onto the keys and I said to her, "where's our car?  do you see it?" (in my best Dora impersonation).  Little bug looked at me with her blank stare, and hit the car alarm button on the key chain so that the car started honking and flashing.  There's the car mom...

One, Two, T-eeeeee

Little bug can count, sort of.  If I say one, two....she says t-eeee!  And then she applauds herself. Last night was girl's night since daddy is back in classes at night for his master's.  When was walking out to go to class, little bug ran to the gate, put her face up and said 'mwah' since she wanted a kiss from daddy, then she waved to him and said 'bye' and ran back to me to play.

She had lots of new games for the two of us to play.  She wanted us to sit down together in all of her hiding places so she could chatter to me and brush my hair.  We squeezed in next to the couch, on the shower floor, next to her daybed.

She's also obsessed with turning the lights off.  She flicks the switch and says, "off" and then swings around quickly to she can see that the light is off.  When it was time for bed, I tucked her in and she said "bye", waved to me and passed out.

Then I was Running

Tonight we went for a run around the neighborhood with little bug in the jogging stroller.  When we were on our cool down lap, we let little bug walk and she started running down the street as fast as her little legs would take her.  She made it halfway down the block and then stopped and turned around to see how far she had gone.  She said, "whoah" and then got her second wind and started running down the street again.  Her jogging style is a little mix of Forrest Gump and a windmill.

Since the weather has been so nice we've met more neighbors than we have in the four years that we've lived here.  Everyone has had kids and the former dog park is now the area where all the kids run around.  Little bug has started walking and holding hands with the little boy who is three years old that lives a few houses down from us.  He owns the coveted Diego bike, so I think little bug is just trying to cozy up to him to get his wheels.  The two of them walk around holding hands which is very cute, until little bug trips and the little boy tries to pick her up by her neck.  She protested a little bit, but he stood her up just the same and probably straightened out her spine.  

Everyone in our neighborhood seems to have had boys.  They were all running around throwing rocks and playing Transformers (which means they named themselves Transformer names and then kept throwing rocks).  Little bug who is a good year younger than the smallest boy wanted to run with them and throw rocks, until I was informed by one of the little boys that she can't play Transformers since there isn't a girl Transformer.  She didn't seem too devastated since she gave him her blank stare and went running off to find more rocks.  Take that Optimus Prime.

Long Distance Calls

When I walked in the door today, little bug ran over, gave me a kiss and grabbed my cell phone. She has learned how to open the flip phone, and when she does she squeals with happiness. She walks around pushing buttons and holding the phone to her ear saying something that sounds like a combination of hola and hello.

Then as little bug was sitting in the corner, and I hear another voice...my sister. Little bug pushed enough buttons and called her Aunt, and had the phone to her ear with a big smile. But when she calls people she suddenly turns mute and doesn't say anything back to them. When I hung up from the call and handed her back the phone, she went back to her corner and sat down. I checked in on her and she had a text messaging screen up. If she learns how to send text messages, I'm putting her on the talk show circuit (or at least posting the video to youtube).

Speaking of youtube, I think tonight we raised the 1.5M+ views of the Bob the Builder theme song by a few hundred hits. Little bug kept reaching for the laptop singing, "Bawb" which is her way of singing the song, and then she headbangs and dances in place in front of the screen.

Nasal Spray & Gin

It is flu time and the flu fairy hit our house on Sunday night giving little bug a 103 degree fever. When she woke up on Monday morning still with her fever, she wanted to be held all day...and hold onto everything she could. So I spent the day carrying her around the house, while she held two stuffed animals, a book and a bottle of nasal spray. I finally weaned her off of carrying everything but the bottle of nasal spray. She only let go of it right before she went to bed.

On Tuesday morning, she woke up with no fever but daddy stayed home with her so she could have one more day to recover. She ditched her bottle of nasal spray for a mini-bottle of gin. She carried it around with her all day, and pretended to drink out of it saying, "glug, glug, ahhh". Good thing she is back to the nanny tomorrow to hopefully kick her nasal spray and gin addiction.

No TV Time

We haven't let little bug watch TV for the first 12 months, which is now back firing a little on us because she doesn't have an interest in TV at all. Which means on flights, long car rides, etc. she won't sit still and watch any shows. During the day at the nanny's house, her little friend was watching TV and little bug wanted to play. Little bug got up, and stood in front of the TV with her back to it, and raised up her arms to block the picture for the other little girl. She started yelling at her until she stopped watching TV and played with little bug.

The two girls apparently have 'show time' where they stand on the fireplace mantel, turn on music and sing and dance around. Little bug has started lip syncing too, moving her lips and bopping her head while she jumps around. We just need to get the girls Rastafarian wigs and teach them, "Blame it on the Rain".

Taking it Easy on the Sitter

Next week we are heading to a wedding at night and won't be able to put little bug to bed. That means next weekend will be the first night that someone other than daddy or I are tucking her in. So, we did a trial run to show the babysitter the routine last night. Little bug is usually asleep when the sitter has gotten there in the past, but for some reason she acted like she recognized her when she saw her. It probably helps that the sitter looks a lot like me. She let the sitter hold her, and even kept giving her so many kisses that I had to tell little bug to stop making out with her.

It was like little bug was trying to show off for her. She toddled her bike around the living room more than I've ever seen her do, and she kept pulling out toys and handing them to her as if she wanted to share everything. She ran around her room as if she was giving a tour of the house. When she was done with her bath, she even tossed her leg over the tub to climb out. Last night she went right to sleep without a peep and slept through the night!

Cleaning, Licking, Whatever

Tonight was copy cat night, which was helpful since it was also cleaning night. I dusted, little bug dusted right behind me. I cleared countertops, little bug wiped them down and licked them. Then she decided to wipe her hands in the cleaning fluid left on the countertop from the Clorox wipes and wiped it in her hair....repeatedly. Sigh. Since her hair always sticks up, I thought that maybe the Clorox would help flatten down her wispy strands, no such luck. So I ran errands tonight with a wispy haired little girl who spelled strangely like bleach.

Earlier today when daddy picked her up from the nanny's he picked up the other little girl in the house and swung her over his head. When he put her down, little bug ran over to her and tried to pick her up, saying "grrrr" like she was digging deep to get more strength.

Good Fortune

I handed little bug a fortune cookie while we were driving around. Usually she crinkles the cookie but can't break open the packaging. Well, not anymore. We turned around to find her munching on an empty wrapper. We'll never know what her fortune was because she ate it. And let's just say that I'm not reading it when her fortune reappears tomorrow...

Found Gas!

Since we are going through the crazy gas shortage, this Sunday morning we woke up and headed out on our gas adventure. The goal was to find a station with gas before our car ran out of it. We drove past two stations with no gas, and one with a crazy long line. Then as we were heading north we saw a tanker filling up the Chevron station. We quickly pulled in to secure our spot, three back from the pump ($4.08/gal). Normally this gas crisis brings out the worst in people with lots of honking and arguments, but this morning the guy parked in front of us ran into the station and bought coffee for daddy and I while we all waited in line. Then we chatted until the pumps were full which took around 20 minutes. It was so nice to see people being cordial to each other. He wouldn't accept any money for the coffee and said his dad owns one of the Dole pineapple plantations, so I figured we'd pay it forward and buy some more Dole products when we go grocery shopping today.

Little bug patiently sat in her car seat the whole time, watching everyone sit in line waiting for gas and I taught her to say "drama"! Then since we had one car filled up, daddy raced back out with the other car that was dangerously low in gas and found a Costco station that had just been refilled at $3.97/gal. So crisis avoided for our household. Both cars are full, and we can both go to work this week without worrying about being stranded without gas.

And Then There Were Six

Teeth. Little bug has two more teeth coming in on the bottom. We were playing the faces game, which goes like this...

Me - Where is mommy's nose?
Little bug - (clocks me in the nose and then trys to jam her finger up my nose)
Me - Where are mommy's teeth?
Little bug - (shoves her hand in my mouth to pull on my teeth)
Me - Where are your teeth?
Little bug - Aaaahhhh (opens her mouth wide to reveal two new little bumps)

So I got all excited and said to her "you have two new teeth" and she looks at me as if to say 'no duh' and then proceeded to explore her mouth for more teeth which consists of her jamming her fingers down her throat until she gags.

Little bug also has a new job she created for herself. Job #1 was taking all of her disposable Dora placemats out of the pantry and stacking them one by one on top of my chair at the dinner table. She'd go to the pantry, take out a placemat, then run to the chair, lay out the placemat on top of the others and say "oh!". Repeat.

Last night we took her to a party and half-way through she decided that she was going to run down the driveway to where our car was parked. She banged on our car door (I was pretty impressed that she knew which car was ours), and when daddy opened up the door she pulled her purse out of the car and then headed back into the party carrying her purse.

There was also a cat at the house we were at, so all of the kids at the party had been trying to corner the cat for a while. Once the kids had the cat trapped they were all quietly, and slowly moving in to start petting it. Just then little bug ran over to the cat, stood about a foot away, looked at it and then started screaming and waving her arms around. Which scared the cat away. The little kids looked at little bug and sighed. She started growling and was very proud of herself.

Back Up Singer

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted, it has been hard to carve out time - but I'm back on it! I'll start filling in on all the little bug stories...

Yesterday I was cooking and little bug was entertaining herself in the living room. I looked over at her and she had her electronic guitar on one side of her and her toy laptop on the other, multi-tasking. I heard her spin the guitar to hear the cow say, "moo", then I heard her little voice saying "mooooo". She kept chattering to herself while she got all of her work done on her laptop and played with her guitar. I guess she has daddy and I pegged.

She has certain songs that she sings along to (if you listen to them, I'm warning you that they may not ever leave your head). The first is the Bob the Builder theme song, which has a chorus of "Booooob the builder.." - when she hears it she sings, "Boooob" and then taps her feet until the chorus comes around again for her to sing, "Boooob". She's quite the back-up singer. Then Lori Berkner's 'Blow a Kiss" song comes on and she blows a kiss and says, "mmm-whah" when the song calls for it.

We Di-Di

Little bug sings the "We did it" song from Dora the Explorer. Well...she dances and says di-di, di-di - which is close enough for me.

She is starting to communicate a lot better. Her favorite new word is 'uh-oh', so when we were eating dinner tonight she dropped bread on the floor and said 'uh-oh'. I asked her if she wanted any more, and she shook her head no and took her bib off.

Free Fall

I have no idea where she picked up this one, but little bug started a trick where she just falls backward. Fearless. Like you do during one of those trust excercises. So we have to lunge after her to catch her before she hits the ground.

The better trick she's picked up is running to us and giving us hugs. A lot less dangerous and much more rewarding!

Stack It Up

Tonight little bug decided to unload the bag of things packed for her nanny. She pulled out a few jars of baby food and sat them on the floor. Then I watched her as she stacked them on top of each other, three high. She kept stacking and restacking her jars for a few minutes.

I showed her that she can stack her blocks, too and she looked at me as if to say, 'why would I want to stack blocks, when I can stack glass jars'?

Of Monkeys and Trash Cans

I was so proud of little bug today! She has a mat that has monkeys, elephants, etc on it. I showed her the monkey and then asked her where the monkey was. She pointed to a monkey close to her, and then pointed out the rest of the monkeys on the mat. She's a genius!

Then we were at the aquarium today watching the sea lions. Little bug had her hands on the tank and was squealing when the sea lions would swim next to her. Then all of a sudden she took off running after something that caught her eye...the trash can. Here we are at the world's largest aquarium with loads of penguins, otters, etc and little bug gets excited about the trash can. It wasn't even one shaped like a fish, it was your standard public can.

There is an area of the aquarium that is a huge floor to ceiling view into the large tank, so all the kids sit on the floor and point out the fish. Little bug watched the fish for a bit and then became more interested in the kids around her. Or rather, the cell phone of the mom sitting next to me. After bug kept sidling up to her, the mom said the whole, "isn't she cute" line. But bug kept lunging for her so she scooped up her kids and left. More room for us! Until the kid on the left of bug had a dolphin stuffed animal that he was letting 'swim' in the tank. Little bug made a beeline for him so we grabbed her and headed out before she attacked him and grabbed the dolphin.

Silence < Good

While we were making dinner, little bug was really quiet. It didn't dawn on me that silence is never good, until I turned the corner and saw her sitting in a pile of grits. She made an impromptu sandbox out of a packet of grits and the hardwood floors. Daddy asked me how she opened the bag of grits and little bug grinned at us, with a piece of the bag stuck in her two front teeth. She didn't hide the evidence very well!

Bottomless Pit

Before we went to dinner with friends tonight little bug scarfed down 1/2 a banana. She would yell, nan-nan-na, and run towards me with her mouth open to chew off a bite as she ran around. Then daddy was eating a bowl of cereal and she ran over to him and begged for cereal. She ran back and forth between us grabbing bites of whatever we were eating. Then we headed to dinner and she was a bottomless pit!

She daintily ate pasta, and then an entire piece of Margarita Pizza which was a thin crust white pizza with tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and fresh basil strips. She ate the whole slice and then waved at everyone in the restaurant with the crust. Which brings me to her latest word she can say which is "bye". She waves and yells, "bye".

Her newest vocabulary words are agua, si, clap, and the ever useful 'uh-oh'.

Tonight when we put her to bed, she squiggled out of my arms while we were reading her a bedtime story and she ran around her room pulling books out of her toy box and handing them to us. Then she pulled out a little blanket, ran to the other side of her room, laid the blanket on the floor and laid on it face down like a starfish.

More Dim Sum Please

We went out for dim sum with friends of ours and little bug is a big fan. I couldn't get the food to her fast enough. She ate everything I gave her and then kept banging her tray for more. She was holding onto the chopsticks and dropped one on the floor. The waiter picked up her chopstick and took it away and she gave him her really mean stare.

After lunch, we headed to get rid of little bug's mullet by taking her to Pigtails & Crewcuts which is a hair cuttery designed for kids. They have this down to a science. Little bug got strapped into a play car, played with the steering wheel and was handed something new every few minutes, i.e. a cookie, a hair clip, a comb, etc. It was like a military operation. She did great except for the last few seconds when she had the inevitable meltdown while the gal put her hair into a side pony tail.

At home little bug went back to work. She has little tasks she has created, one of which is to carry her clothes into our room and then carry our clothes from our room into hers. She's very serious about her jobs.

You Can Do It - Little Bug Can Help

Our big Friday night kicked off with a visit to Home Depot to finally get all the supplies to finish our bathroom remodel. I was picking out paint colors and little bug wanted to hold all of the paint samples like she was a squirrel storing nuts for the winter. She pulled one of the Disney paint booklets off of the display and decided to sit down in the aisle and read it as if it was one of her story books. She even babbled away as she "read" to herself.

Once she was done reading, I took her to the carpeting section to play while they were mixing up our paint for us. She wouldn't let go of her Disney color swatch book and carried it through the store as she patted down and kissed every carpet sample. There was a lot of love in the renovation section that day.

Quick question to Home Depot...who thought it was a good idea to stack light bulbs at floor level?

Snap to It

While daddy was driving little bug home from the nanny today he was snapping to the music, and little bug tried snapping, too. She opened and closed her little fist trying to make a noise. If she had mastered it we'd be calling Letterman!

Snooze Button

I know I probably just created a bad habit, but little bug woke up yelling this morning at 6am. I usually sleep in until around 6:30 and get her up, dressed, fed and then hand her over to daddy while I get ready. But this morning I just didn't want to get up and start the routine at 6. So I got her out of her crib, and tucked her into bed with me as if it was a Saturday. She was as quiet as a mouse and thought it was hilarious that we were sleeping in. At 6:30 we finally rolled out of bed officially to start our day...

Saving a Little Bit for Later

We had pizza last night (i.e. forgot to defrost anything ahead of time) and little bug was eating her little pieces of pizza very daintily. Of course she decided to wipe her hands off in her hair adding pizza sauce and cheese to her hairdo. Later on that night I realized that her hair wasn't the only thing that smelled like a pizza joint. When I was undressing her to take a bath I noticed that she had smuggled a piece of pizza under her shirt. It was stuck to her chest in all of its one hour old pizza-ness. She was very proud of her stowaway.

She also had a little accident while waiting for the bath to be ready. I closed the door to the bathroom so that she couldn't run too far while I was filling up the bathtub. Little bug was quiet which I knew couldn't be good. I turned around to see her peeing on the bathmat. She was fascinated with herself and I learned that apparently the sound of water causes mother nature to show up. Things to remember when we start potty training her in a few months.

Little bug also says "dog". Of course she yelled it when the dog had walked down the street and was out of sight. She still has the brain to speech delay going on.

Grits, Dor-da, and Trains

She is truly a southern girl. For lunch I fed her cheese grits and a hot dog, kind of the poor man's version of shrimp and grits. And she loved it! Once she got her hands in the grits it started going downhill though since grits kind of get the consistency of those little fish eggs on top of sushi. Little bug started rolling them around her tray and playing until the 'washcloth of no fun' appeared, as it does after every meal to ruin her "food art".

We also realized that she can say Dora. I took her grocery shopping today and found little cups her size that had Dora the Explorer on them. She held onto the cup during the whole shopping trip, blowing into it making the sound of a large ship makes when it is about to depart. Most people laughed at her sound effects. When she wasn't imitating a barge, she was saying "Dor-da" and then flipped the cup around to the photo of Boots and she would say "bah". I asked her who I was and she replied, "da-da". Clearly the marketers have won when my kid knows Dora's name and her sidekick, but still can't figure out that I'm ma-ma.

Little bug also got her first stranger kiss. I was in Barnes & Noble buying a 'how to discipline your toddler' book and took her to the kids section to play with the train table/petri dish they have. There were two other kids a little older than her playing with the trains. The boy closest to her right looked at little bug, and kissed her on the lips. His mother kept apologizing, but little bug didn't seem phased by it at all. She just kept taking the trains off the track and putting them on the floor. Then she wandered over to the other little boy who seemed parentless. He must be an avid Thomas the Train watcher because he was telling little bug the name of all of the trains she was picking up...and then he would take them from her because clearly she didn't value the trains as much as he did.

Dancing and Microwaving Bills

We have some new words in little bug's vocabulary: bubble and ball. On a related note, we've spent some time chasing bubbles and kicking the soccer ball around the house. She also picked up the baby sign for 'more'.

She has started dancing to music and by dancing I mean stomping her feet and shaking her head from side to side. She'll dance in her high chair, her car seat, the living room...anywhere there is music playing.

The weather was gorgeous today so we took little bug to the park to run off some energy. She discovered that she can pick up the gravel on the path, so we had to keep on top of her making sure that she wasn't eating wood chips or pieces of gravel. She had fun on the swing, the slide and even gave the rock wall a couple of pats.

She has a strange habit that she's started. Apparently she thinks the mail belongs in the microwave. She picks up an envelope, and when you pick her up she lunges for the microwave. So I have to open the door to the microwave, put the envelope inside and then open the door so she can pull it out. I'm trying to make sure I don't microwave any bills by accident!

Test Swing

Since we are rescheduling little bug's birthday party, it turns out that the park we originally booked is not available until September. So we headed to another nearby park tonight to check it out. Since we have her car seat facing forward the air vents blow on her sometimes and she loves it. I turned around to find her tossing her head around and smiling as if she was a supermodel on a photo shoot.

The park passed the little bug test! Daddy was on a swing with her in his lap and I was swinging on the swing next to her. She thought it was hilarious. She had the biggest smile and giggles the whole time she was on the swing.

We've added another word to our repertoire, "up", as in "pick me up". She stands at your feet and puts her hands over her head. Of course if you don't pick her up she holds onto your legs. I didn't realize that she had something sticky on her hands until I looked down at my dry clean only pants and saw little hand prints. Daddy and I had both been marked by the little bug tonight.

The Doctor Says "Ow"

Little bug is now full of drama. I have no idea where she is getting this from (ah-hem). When I picked her up from the nanny's she saw me, threw her head back and walked to me in slow motion while she was whining. It was as if she was saying, "alright, I'll go to the doctor with you, but I don't want to". So, I packed up the little drama queen and headed to the doctor's office.

She was having a great time in the lobby. She played with all the toys (probably laden with all kinds of germs), jabbered to people, and walked all around with her arm in the air because she was wearing my bracelet. During her checkup, the nurse asked if she could say any words and we said "yes, she says da-da, ma-ma, duck, doll, etc" and little bug started yelling "duck, duck, duck, duck". At least the nurses didn't think we were lying. Then...the wheels fell off the bus. As soon as someone touched little bug, she screamed her head off. Considering she was getting a full checkup, four shots (one in each appendage) and a throat swab -- there was a lot of touching going on. She screamed as loud as I've ever heard her, and she kept yelling something that sounded like "ow, ow, ow". I was going to have the nurses add that one to the list of words she could say, but I don't think they were seeing the humor. When we got home, she was perfectly fine and even pulled off her own band aids.

She is weighing in at 21 lbs and 11 ounces and is 29 inches tall. She's in the 50th percentile for height and weight and the 25th percentile for head circumference, but I'm sure her small head won't last for long. Tonight she stood up on our scale and it showed her weight as 21 pounds. Like most women she started to cry until we took her off the scale.

Since little bug had the fever on Sunday, I tossed her dolly that she takes naps with in the washing machine to get the germs off of her. Bug pulled dolly out of the dryer and proceeded to drag her across a toilet seat, stick her in the shower (with water running), toss her in the trash and then try to stuff her in the diaper genie. So much for trying to keep dolly clean!

OfficeMax is the new ToysRUs

What a difference 24 hours makes! Little bug woke up with no fever and was just a little bit clingy in the morning. After her first nap, she was raring to go. This weekend is tax-free shopping in Georgia so while daddy was playing soccer, us gals hit the mall. We didn't have much luck, other than witnessing the pandemonium that is Stride Rite on tax free + BOGOHO day. There were kids packed in the shoe store wall-to-wall, little bug was enjoying all the chaos like she was watching a movie. She stayed in her stroller, drinking on her sippy cup while she took in all the drama of the store as I exchanged her shoes. I also learned that she might not have the best fashion sense considering that she kept pulling clothes that weren't exactly my style off the rack in Ann Taylor.

Once daddy got home, we headed to the stores to do some back to school teacher shopping. Little bug feel in love in OfficeMax. They had typewriters (yes, apparently they still make typewriters) plugged in on the bottom shelf. Little bug jumped up and down and pounded on the keys to her heart's content. They she spied a guy eating a candy bar and made a bee line for him. I guess she was hoping that he would share...he didn't.

Tonight when I took her out of the bathtub, I was drying her off and singing "We Go Together" from Grease to her. When I hit the "boog-e-dy boog-e-dy boog-e-dy
boog-e-dy" part, she turned and looked at me like I was nuts. When she was sitting on her changing table, I was bouncing her arms around like she was dancing to the music and she started singing along, using "da-da" as her lyrics for everything. After she had her bottle, rather than sitting down for her bedtime story, she was like a pinball. She ran from her clothes hamper, to her diaper genie, to her dresser...ping, ping, ping. Then finally we zipped her into her sleep sack and she conked out.

103.5 Reasons to Not Party

In the land of unpredictability little bug woke up on the morning of her birthday party with a 103.5 fever. No party, just lots of carrying her around under a ceiling fan trying to bring her temperature down. We even lifted the TV ban to let her lay on the couch and watch Sesame Street. Hopefully tomorrow morning she'll wake up fever free and ready to plan her unbirthday party.

Monkeys & Ducks

Today's big accomplishment was that little bug can immitate animals on command.

Us: "What does the monkey say?"
Bug: "ooooo"
Us: "Can you say duck?"
Bug: "uck, uck, uck"
Us: "What does the duck say?"
Bug: [cross between a growl and a quack]
--end scene--

She also feeds herself with a spoon. My big mistake was handing her applesauce to "spoon" into her mouth. Apparently spoon = catapult in little bug's brain.

Pad, Pad, Crash, Thunk

Little bug is enjoying her newfound freedom and running around the house everywhere. All I hear is pad, pad, pad, silence, crash, 'oh', pad, pad, pad...as her little feet run around on the hardwoods. We were in the living room talking and little bug was making her rounds around the house, going into the kitchen and bringing us things. First she brought me a styrofoam coffee cup, then a lid - I was hoping for the coffee pot next, but she padded over with the potato masher, of course.

We were playing with her stacking rings, learning how things fit. She got the concept of stacking the rings on the pole, but then tried to stack a book on top of it. Frustration set in, so she picked up her little pole with the rings on it, walked over to the top of the stairs and took the rings off one by one and tossed them through the slats of her baby gate down the stairs. So I guess the lesson of what fits where was extended to include the fact that plastic rings fit through the slats of the baby gate.

The little narcissist has also realized that the back of daddy's guitar is shiny enough for her to see her reflection. So when he is playing she acts sweet like she wants to play with the guitar and then makes him spin it around so she can see herself in the wood on the back. She gives herself a kiss, giggles and pads away.

Let me do it!

I thought we were going to have a few more months before little bug went through the, "I want to do it on my own" phase. Lucky us. It has already started. Now that little bug can walk/run anywhere, she wants to do everything on her own. Open & close doors, turn the light switches on & off, put clothes in the dryer (or the corner of her room that she things is the best spot for wet laundry)...you name it.

This has also spilled (literally) into eating. She wants to eat things like mommy does. Which means if I'm eating a sandwich and holding it, she has to hold it before she takes a bite. She'll eat pretty much everything (egg drop soup, pizza, turkey, mu shu pork) and if something is on your plate, she wants it. She's picking up a lot of good concepts, but waiting for something to cool is not one of them. Last night we picked up fried chicken and I was feeding her pieces of a biscuit. Big mistake. She had to hold the biscuit and make a mess of it on her tray before she'd eat it. Same deal with the chicken, I actually had to hand her a drumstick to chew pieces off because she wouldn't eat the pieces I had cut up and put on her tray.

We also have some interesting food combos. Her stomach must be a tank because today she had bananas, hot dog, and mashed potatoes for lunch following her watermelon and oatmeal breakfast. Of course, she still has her snacks of whatever lint, paper, and feather bed feathers she finds on the floor. Off to vacuum!

Snuggle Bug

Right before we left on vacation, we realized that little bug has learned the art of snuggling. She'll teeter over to you and lay down on top of you and snuggle, sometimes it even comes with a sloppy kiss. When we were on vacation, she was on snuggle overload since her pack & play was in our hotel room and (conveniently set up by daddy) located on my side of the bed. I'd wake up in the morning to see little bug standing up in her pack & play, wearing her sleep sack, staring at me.

After a goofy grin, I'd scoop her up and she'd snuggle in bed with us for a few more minutes. I have a little birthmark on my chest near my shoulder, and little bug has no idea what to make of it. She pushes it like a button, the kisses it, then tries to pull it off.

Once she's done snuggling and realizes she can't crawl very well in her sleep sack, the party is over. She starts screaming for a diaper change and bottle.

Little Parrot

Little bugs vocabulary consists of a few words right now, hi, bye (these are actually the same word - kind of like aloha), da-da, ma-ma (which currently sounds like Bubba), and doll. Then she mimics what you say and repeats back sounds. I was across the room and said 'oh', then I hear little bug who was playing with her toys, say 'oh'. With her little noises, she makes sounds that mimic ola, dora, I love you, and uh-oh...

Delayed Transmission

When little bug sees someone to say hello or good-bye she always waves and says 'hi' or 'bye' (since they sound the same when she says them) about a minute after they've already left. It is like the hamster stopped spinning on the wheel in her brain for a few seconds. I'll be strolling her through the grocery store and someone will be waving and smiling at her, then two aisles later she says 'hi' and starts waving at nothing. Today when we were leaving Target, we hit the parking lot and I hear 'bye' and she's waving. A little too late.

She also doesn't seem to be that upset about crawling away from me. Today she's been crawling down the hall, or across the room and I'll wave and say 'bye'. She turns around and gives me a quick wave and says 'bye', smiles, and keeps on trucking.

Vacuum Chaser

Little bug is obsessed with the vacuum. She chases it when I'm vacuuming the floor and then she picks up the cord and walks around holding the cord like I do when I'm using it. If she is sitting on the floor, I'll run the vacuum next to her and she tries to crawl on top of it and ride it. Her other trick is to crawl fast in front of the vacuum, and then stop and stand on her head to watch it through her legs. Needless to say, this is all entertaining but makes vacuuming a room a little bit of a challenge.

She's also started acting like a vacuum cleaner herself when it comes to eating. We are now feeding her off of our plates and the other night she polished off a jar of baby food, half of my mashed potatoes and corn and a few bites of pork. Her belly looked like a balloon, then about an hour later she polished off half of her bottle before going to bed. It is feast or famine with her, some days she'll eat everything and other days all she wants are bananas and watermelon.

We just got our shower tiled and it has become little bug's favorite new spot to play. She crawls around the tiled shower floor and bangs on the walls...kind of like a prisoner in solitary confinement, but it seems to entertain her.

Laundry Sure, But I Don't Do Windows

I was moving a load of clothes from the washer to the dryer and little bug was holding onto my legs trying to get in the middle of everything. So I handed her a sock and told her to put it in the dryer. She stood up on her tippy toes and put it in the dryer and then slammed the dryer door shut. I was pretty impressed, so I handed her two socks. She looked at me, grinned, and took off crawling down the hallway with her two socks. I chased after her, grabbed a sock and showed her that it had to go in the dryer. After debating what she was going to do for a while, she reluctantly grabbed the sock, put it in the dryer and then slammed the door shut.

All That Glitters

Little bug is 100 percent girl, girly to be exact. She has picked up a habit of taking my bracelets off of me when I come home from work so that she can wear them. She puts them on her arms and walks around with her arms in the air so that the bracelets don't fall off. She'll also wear my big necklaces that almost hang down the floor on her. When she puts one on she gets a huge smile.

She likes holding onto my jewelry and hides it in her favorite spots. We made a tent out of her little activity gym by tossing a blanket on top of it. She hides in it and brings her favorite toys into the tent with her. I was running late leaving for work and couldn't find my watch anywhere. As I was about to give up, I spotted her little tent and inside of it I found my watch, the lid to a jar of nuts, and a little bottle of sprinkles.

This week we were shopping for some big gold gangsta chains for her to wear to the "Come as your favorite rock star 4th of July BBQ" and instead of finding gold chains, I found a pink beaded necklace with matching bracelets and choking hazard ring (which I tossed of course). Little bug grabbed onto the necklace in the store and would barely let go of it for the cashier to ring us up. She wore it in the carseat and then walked around the house with it. Luckily she forgot about it when it came bedtime.

Not the best maid

I was watching little bug play around in her room and "put things away". I watched as she picked my bracelet up off the floor, walked to the diaper genie, opened it up, and put the bracelet inside. After closing the lid, she opened it back up again just to make sure it was still there.

Apparently plastic Easter eggs are best hidden under the corner of our bed, and pieces of lint in her mouth.

She has also started wiping things off. She prefers to use her dirty washcloths that are hanging on the oven door drying. Little bug is now tall enough to stand up, pull the washcloth down, open the cabinet door, pull out a cup and then 'wipe it off' with her dirty washcloth. Let's just say that she won't be opening a cleaning business any time soon.

As if her cleaning ventures aren't enough activity, she is going through the "what do I fit into" phase. I've found her wedged between two dining room chairs, hiding between the daybed and the wall, and trying to stick her legs into daddy's ukulele case. When her nanny was packing her suitcase for a trip she was going on, little bug took all of the clothes out of the suitcase, threw them all over the floor, crawled into the case and closed the lid.

She also trys to put my shoes on herself and can't quite understand why they won't stay on her feet when she walks.

It's got fangs

So when little bugs top teeth were breaking through the upper right one started looking like it was pointed, like a vampire fang hanging down. We kept trying to get her to open her mouth so we could inspect it, but she kept clamping her jaws shut. Even her nanny was joking about her vampire teeth and how it'll be funny to look at until her real teeth come in.

I was getting worried about the teeth that only a mother could love lasting for the first five years.

But, before I was able to research if they make baby veneers, it turned out that the pointed tooth was just a part of her gum that had turned white and was protruding more than the rest of her teeth. Whew! So she has four teeth, all straight, some not so close to others...but at least none are pointed!

Fourth Tooth Coming In!

Little bug was laughing in her car seat and I saw the fourth tooth poking out of her gums. So we've made it through the first four teeth breaking through the gums with no fevers! Whew. And now that she has four teeth she is now what we call a 'city girl'. Of course there is a space a mile wide in between her two front teeth. Hopefully when they drop all the way through her gums they'll shore up a little...

Third Tooth

When daddy was reading little bug her bedtime story, she was holding onto her doll and laughing with me. She put her head back giggling and we saw her top right tooth has just broken through her gums. So now that she has three teeth, she can officially be a resident of Georgia.

We rarely stray from her bedtime routine, so little bug now starts making sucking sounds even before we give her the bottle because she knows it is coming. She waits to get her teeth brushed, and then lays back so that we can put cream on her neck to avoid a neck rash. Such a pampered princess.

She has also started playing games with us. If she is crawling and we start crawling behind her, saying "I'm going to get you", she speeds up and starts giggling trying to outrun us. I was in her room and she crawled into the hallway and then looked back at me as if to say, "aren't you going to come get me?"

Everything in its place

Little bug has started realizing that certain things go in certain places. She must get it from her dad, since I'm a little more random in the organizational department. Today she opened up a gift box, took out the cotton stuffing inside, then put the stuffing back and tried to put the lid back on. She's also figured out how to put on sunglasses, and attempted to put her daddy's glasses on her - which we stopped since we were sure it would make her blind. So for now, books go on the shelf, lids go back on boxes and socks, well, socks seem to go anywhere.

She now also has a trick she does with daddy. Rather than kissing him, she headbuts him. When he feeds her in her high chair, she stops and leans her head forward as far as she can and won't eat until he taps his head to hers. Then she smiles and takes another bite of food.

Day with little bug

I've been missing little bug during the day, and work is slow right now so I let her stay at home with me while I "worked from home" today. She started off the day by waking up with the giggles. She was laughing her belly laugh at everything from changing her diaper to giving her a bottle. She is getting really good at imitating sounds now. She has a book that shows an elephant and then it says "bralooo", which is apparently how you spell the noise an elephant makes. Anyway, she imitates the sounds now. Squak, squak for the parajo & oo-oo for the monkey.

During the day, I was in the kitchen and didn't see where she was in the dining room. Silence is never good, so I found her under the dining room table eating carpet lint. I'm so concerned about what is in her food, so we only feed her organic food - and her favorite things to eat are carpet lint and paper. Go figure. I crawled under the table to pick up the extra carpet fibers before she ate any more and she thought it was hysterical that I was under the table with her. She started laughing and fell over on her side she was giggling so much.

We got the mail together, bills for me, a postcard for her. A few seconds later the corner of the postcard had been eaten. I hope they use organic paper.

When it came time for my conference call at 2, she crawled over to me, gave me a huge yawn and went right to sleep in her crib. She was the perfect co-worker today...minus the paper eating.

9 Month Check-Up

Everyone knew that little bug was at the doctor's office last week for her check up. As soon as we put her on the scale to weigh her, she started screaming her head off! It took three of us to hold her down to measure her and then she kept crawling off the scale when they tried to weigh her. Other than putting us through the rodeo, she is right on track 50th percentile for weight (19.2 lbs) and height (27.5in).

As soon as we got her dressed and out of the doctor's office into the elevator to go to the parking garage, it was like nothing had happened. She was smiling sweetly at the people in the elevator and getting comments like, "what a little angel". If only they had seen her ten minutes before...

Puppy love

We were at a friend's house for a BBQ and they have a sweet golden retriever. Little bug was sitting on my lap and reaching for the dog, so the dog came up and licked her hands and gave her a big kiss on the lips. My little bug didn't cry, she wasn't sure what to do, but she definitely liked the dog. During the party she kept walking (while holding onto my hands) towards the dog, and when it would turn around to play with her, little bug would back away. She wanted to get close enough to watch the puppy, but still kept her distance just in case any more doggy kisses were on their way.

Figuring it out

All of a sudden she's figured out how to use things. She picks up a hairbrush and starts brushing her hair, puts the phone to her ear, tries to seatbelt herself into her high chair, and tries to zip up her sleep sack.

She even snuggles with a pillow. I was taking a nap and daddy put her on the bed. She crawled up to my face and put her head down on the pillow next to me. It only lasted for a few seconds of "snuggling", but it was the best!

Holding hands

Little bug is standing up on her own now. I was standing in the living room talking with daddy and I felt a little hand start holding mine. She had stood up without any help, reached up and grabbed my hand.

Drink your water

I was drinking a bottle of water and little bug usually likes to chew on the bottle when the cap is on (or use it as a weapon to bang onto things). She reached for my water, so I handed her my 1/2 empty bottle to play with. She "pretend" drank out of it and then tried to give it back to me. She wouldn't hand it over to me until I would take the cap off and take a sip of water.

I handed the bottle back to her, and she grinned at me, "pretend" drank out of it, then pushed the bottle back to my mouth. She started whining until I took another sip. She started giggling and thought this was highly entertaining. This routine went on until she forced me to finish off the bottle. My little girl now knows how to haze me into drinking my water.

Remembering the First Diaper Changes

Now that little bug is so active, changing her has become quite the challenge. Most changes are as she's either standing up or crawling around. It reminded me of the first times her dad was changing her diaper when she was born. Since I had the c-section, I couldn't leave the bed for the first few hours and her dad had to do everything. He had her laying down on the couch in the room (the one that he was sleeping on), he took her diaper off, used some wipes and then was blowing on her to dry her off from the wipes and she pee'd on the couch. It was so funny to watch the whole comedy routine work out of him trying to change her, while she was yelling at him and peeing all over everything he put in front of her. It is a really funny memory.

Getting into Everything

Silence is never good. It means little bug is interested in something that is entertaining her enough to stay quiet. This morning it was rolling all of the toilet paper off of the roll, yesterday it was emptying the kitchen pantry. Leave her alone for five minutes and she's created quite a mess.

She is also obsessed with daddy's glasses. She constantly pulls them off, bends them, chews on them...

Her second favorite thing is playing with daddy's guitar. Whenever he starts to play, she crawls over, pulls herself up, plucks at the strings and kisses the guitar.

Mother's Day Gift

So Dad put my mother's day gift from little bug in a small bag that she could carry. She had a big grin on her face, swinging the bag around. Once she realized it was a shiny bracelet (that she had picked out), I'm not sure she wanted to give it to me. She kept playing with it on my arm during church, and while we were playing at home. She is very proud of her gift!

Look Out She Bites

The fact that little bug wants to give kisses is really cute. Until she bites. She crawls over all sweet, grabs your face with her two hands, gives you drooly kisses and then when you are laughing she shoves your cheek in her mouth and bites down.

I'm not sure how I'm going to break her of this habit. Maybe we'll just let her do it, it will cut down her dating prospects dramatically.

Splash Zone

Now that little bug pulls herself up on everything, she decided that the bathtub is no different. She grabs a hold of the side of her tub and pulls herself up to standing. From that vantagepoint she realizes that she can throw things out of the tub. So her toys (full of water) hit the ground like water balloons.

Once she figured out that toys can pour water on the bathroom floor, she decided that a full washcloth can do a lot more damage. So it is as if she is a cowboy in a rodeo waving his hat, she waves her washcloth full of water around so it douces anyone and anything in a two foot radius.

I thought I'd outsmart her and I would distract her, squeeze the water out of the washcloth and let her swing around a semi-dry one. To which, she looked at the dry-ish wash cloth and dipped it back in the water. This dip washcloth in the water, swing it around, pause/mommy squeezes out the water, swing it around, realize it is dry, dip it in the water...went on for a few minutes while we laughed at what a mischevous little imp she is. Then we mopped up the bathroom floor with towels.

Puppet Show

Great Grandma is in town so little bug has another audience member to entertain. She tried pulling herself up onto our ottoman so she could stand up and look at Great Grandma who was sitting on the couch. Little bug was trying to do this while she had one of her dolls in her hand. So from the vantage point of sitting on the couch, all you see is a little doll appear above the ottoman, thrash around and then disappear. Then a sheet of paper (which was in little bug's other hand) would appear, thrash around and then disappear.

For the ending of the show, both the paper and the doll appeared and moved around quite a bit. We laughed hysterically at the show. Eve had no idea what we were laughing at since she was just trying to pull herself up but couldn't because both her hands were full.

Great Grandma also taught her a new trick. If little bug is sitting down and you put your pointer fingers in front of her and say "Wheee", she pulls your fingers above her head, lifting her arms up. She is pretty proud of her new trick which she learned during a long car ride today.

What Lies Beneath

Our little bug has figured out that there is an "underneath", i.e. under the couch, under the bed, under her crib, etc. She gets close to something and then squats down, or gets on the ground and looks around under the couch/bed/crib. When she sees something she gets excited, turns to whoever is in the room and claps. She is so proud of herself.

She's also started to splash in the bathtub. She bangs her arms around to make waves. If the water hits her face, it reminds her that this is the same stuff that she drinks, so she puts her mouth in the water to slurp to get a big swig of it. Face first, she is fearless.

First Class for Mommy

The flight back from Chicago was awesome. Little bug fell asleep in my arms as the flight took off and didn't wake up until the wheels hit the ground to land. The people around us even commented that they can't believe that she slept through the entire flight, all the announcements, and the beverage carts rolling around. Having her sleep the whole flight was my version of First Class flying.

First Class

We booked our trip to Chicago so long ago with frequent flyer miles that they bumped us to first class. I'm not sure what computer glitch allows a passenger with "infant in arms" on their ticket to get the free pass to first class, but who I am to judge the Delta system.

They start boarding the plane as we walk to the gate and we realize that we haven't changed little bug's diaper. So I run off to the ladies room to change her 'quickly' before we board. I use the word 'quickly' in a loose sense, since I never know what Eve has planned for public diaper changings. This changing table was a very nice Corian area of counterspace that had a full size mirror on two sides. Heaven for my little narcissist.

As soon as I laid her down, she popped up on her knees, pulled herself up onto the mirror and started kissing her reflection. I caught some of the ladies in the restroom giving me the "how disgusting that you let your daughter suck on a bathroom mirror" which I return with a big grin and my "why don't you come over here and try to do better" look. We exchange these glances because we are all from the South where you clearly don't say what is on your brain, if we were in the Northeast I'm sure the exchange would have been a little more vocal.

Anyway, back to my diva. She kissed herself during the entire diaper change and we hurried back to the gate. We are one of the last people to get on the plane just in time to see the 100% male first class look up, see daddy toss our diaper bag into seat 2B and sigh that "who brings a baby into first class" sigh.

As luck would have it, little bug decides to start to cry. So the glances get a little meaner in our direction, which I return with my "if you pay extra for the seats in first class, you can afford those noise canceling headphones" smile. We get a bottle ready to plug her when the flight takes off, but we can't hold off because she's really starting to get going. So I tell her she needs to coast on the bottle since she needs to drink some while the plane is going up so her ears don't pop. Of course, she downs the bottle when we are halfway up to the 10K feet mark. So I tell daddy to get a bottle of water ready to pour into the bottle. Which he does, after spilling some all over the two of us while the plane hits a bump.

So, little bug is trying to figure out how she just got a 16 oz bottle since she keeps sucking on it and it isn't ending. But, it quieted her down, the captain turned off the seat belt sign and I scooped her up and took her back to coach to walk around. I sit her down in an empty seat and decided to let her pull the magazines out of the seat pockets to entertain her. Her favorite toy of the flight was the barf bag. Once she found it, she wouldn't let go of it. So here I am walking around the flight with my little girl holding onto a barf bag like it is her life support system. It was instant "parent-dar", anyone who was a parent laughed and told me a similar story about their kid latching onto something gross, all the non-parents looked at me like I was the worst mother in the world. I've really come to enjoy that look of disgust that non-parents give me. I actually try to egg them on, I guess this is preparation for when little bug is a teenager and I need to be able to embarrass her.

Margaritas on the Deck

Little bug and I met the girls out last night for happy hour/dinner on the deck of a Mexican restaurant. It was her first time out eating her own food at a restaurant and sitting in her own chair. She did great! She sat there and ate her puffs and drank out of her sippy cup, all the while giving everyone at the restaurant her cold hard stare. She isn't one to give out the smiles that easily.

There was even a clown at the restaurant that was making balloon animals (which was a little random). Little bug didn't cry, she just stared at him, and then at her balloon puppy which I think entertained us more than it entertained her.

All in all, I actually got to eat and enjoy the evening with my girlfriends while she entertained herself for the most part with books and toys that I brought. And that was even better than having a margarita!

Wheels are Turning

You can see the wheels starting to turn inside her head. She looks at you when she gets close to something she shouldn't touch, and when you say "no" she'll hesitate because I think it is registering that it is wrong. Of course she'll go ahead and do it anyway, but I think she's starting to understand.

She has also picked up a cute habit from the little girls she is with during the day. When she smiles big, she squints her eyes and closes them.

Making Her Mark at Macy's

We hit the mall today and were heading into Macy's when she needed a diaper change. Just a wet diaper, nothing major. Turns out that the bathroom I went to didn't have a changing table. They had a lounge but no changing station. So I pulled out her changing pad and decided to change her on the floor.

All she wanted to do was crawl to one of the mirrors, so I tried to entertain her with everything. A rattle, the wipes case, my watch...nothing worked. I decided it would be easier to just stand her up and change her that way since I do that on her changing table at home sometimes. So I stand her up, take off her diaper, and as I'm reaching for her wipes she pees all over my jeans, the floor, her socks and her changing pad.

Now I have to wipe down her, the pad, sponge it out of the floor and make sure it isn't running down my leg. While I'm wiping her down, she spots a yellow M&M wrapper on the floor that she has to crawl to. I'm using the hoodie she was wearing as a leash to try to pull her back to me and stop her from crawling with one arm while I'm cleaning up her mess with the other arm.

All the while women are coming in and out of the restroom highly entertained at the show we were putting on. Now that she is mobile, these diaper changes are getting more and more interesting!

Hi-yeeee

With her newfound arm coordination, she's learned how to wave in addition to her clapping. So now she'll wave hello or goodbye and then she is so proud of herself that she'll give herself a round of applause. She waves at everything and says "hi-yeee"...the top of the stairs, her toys, mommy and daddy.

She hasn't quite yet learned to wave hello/goodbye to strangers yet. She is still too busy studying them and giving them her wary stare...

Drool Kisses

After a week home with daddy for Spring Break, she learned how to give kisses. She'll lean in close (with her mouth open of course) and kiss you on the lips. Slobber and all. Her best trick is crawling up to your face when you are on the floor and she'll lean over you and "kiss" you which means she transfers all of her drool to you.

Rough Reader

I was sitting down reading the Parenting magazine when little bug crawled into my lap and decided to read with me. She curled up for a while and listened to the article and then she turned it into a choose your own adventure. Her ending? Rip the pages out of the magazine and then try to eat them.

She didn't get through too many stories before we moved onto another fun activity.

Stair Climber

We knew little bug could climb over pillows, but didn't know she could manage stairs. Luckily, she crawls as quietly as an elephant. I was in the kitchen and heard her clopping around, then it sounded like she was on carpeting. She had climbed up the one stair and was on the landing heading into the bathroom.

I turned her around and she started to climb up the stairs. Waiting to catch her at any moment, I watched her crawl up five stairs with no problem whatsoever. Clearly we bought two more baby gates that are going up tonight!

Where's Mimi?

Little bug has a little bath book called, "Mimi's Toes" that we read to her when she's in the tub. She is getting so good at playing peek-a-boo that I covered up the face of Mimi the monkey in little bug's book and asked her, "where's Mimi?" She pulled my hand away and tapped at the picture of the monkey that was underneath. Impressive.

The next night, daddy did the same thing and then he covered up a picture of a duck that is on the opposite page of Mimi. He asked little bug, "where's Mimi?" She was not fooled, she pointed to Mimi the monkey on the page, not the duck that was covered up. I think she's a genius.

Kitchen Utensils

I was changing little bug on her changing table and noticed that there were new marks on the wall right next to her. I asked daddy if he knew where they came from, and he replied, "That is from the spatula". Of course.

Apparently since little bug is a moving target when you try to change her since she tries to crawl off the table, daddy brings things she has never seen before to play with. It distracts her long enough to change a diaper. This would explain the random items that have shown up in her room lately.

Stingray

Now that little bug is on the move, walking around the house has become like walking in the ocean. Shuffle your feet to move the stingrays and whatever else might be underfoot. In addition to taking off at lightning crawling speed, little bug likes to sit at your feet and play with your shoes, so you always have to move slowly in order to not peg her with a high heel.

The little daredevil has already started pulling herself up the stairs. So yet another baby gate is going up tonight. She was sitting in the corner of her room playing with the door stopper. I checked to make sure the little white knob wasn't going to come off and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was sodered on. Thinking that I was done being a responsible parent, I let her continue to play with the door stopper. After she was quiet for a bit, I looked to see what she was up to and she had pulled the entire door stopper out of the wall and was chewing away on it, with a big grin for me when she saw me looking at her. Honestly.

Gotta Read the Instructions

Little bug has been a little bit fussy today (teeth must be on the move), so I figured I'd pull out a new toy for her to play with, the Dancing Tower that Nan got her for Christmas. The lowest configuration is for a nine-month old, so that is how I put it together. Little bug sat next to me, holding onto the installation instructions and looking like she was reading them. Just like her dad. I on the other hand never read instructions so she was kept entertained by holding onto them.

I put together the toy that has a bear that dances to music on the top, she LOVED it and got a big smile on her face. But she loves to stand up so she kept trying to stand up and play with it. I decided to install it at the 12-month level which is off the ground so that she can stand or kneel and play with it. Success! She played with it for a while, and then decided that the box it came in was a lot of fun too. She walked around by herself, using the box as a push toy on the carpeting.

Cranky for the Babysitter

We went out to dinner with friends tonight, and little bug definitly made our fabulous babysitter earn her keep. Bug would not go to sleep at 8:00, she kept crying and we all tried to calm her down. 8:30 dinner reservations were calling, so we left her with the babysitter to work it out.

Catch is that even though we've had the same babysitter for three or four times now, little bug has never really seen her. She's always sound asleep. So, she was a little freaked out that a stranger (to her) was taking care of her. But, once our sitter rocked her to sleep for a bit she slept the whole night through and even slept in until 7am. Thank goodness!

Imelda Marcos

Little bug loves shoes, just like any good girl should! No matter how many toys are around, she crawls as quick as she can to find whatever shoes we have laying around. Heels, sneakers, flip flops...she doesn't discriminate. She pulls them into her lap and chews on the leather and the shoelaces, and then uses the bottoms as drums.

Daddy's Girl

Little bug babbles away with her little sounds, but she hasn't said ma-ma in a while. So right before I put her to bed the other night I was holding her. I kept saying ma-ma, trying to get her to repeat me.

She got a big smile and said at the top of her lungs, "Da-Da". Sigh...she was very proud of herself.

Chompers

When daddy was driving little bug this morning she started fussing in the backseat so he reached back to hand her a toy, and she bit him...with her new little bottom teeth buds. Well, maybe that isn't exactly how it happened, but that is my version of the story since I wasn't there.

I examined her mouth when I got home. Which consisted of her sticking her fingers in my mouth (since she has to do everything I do), while I dug around in her gums for her new shiny teeth. You can see little lines at the top of her bottom gums where her two bottom teeth have broken through. You can see the outline of her top teeth through her gums, but I hope they are still developing - because they are very far apart. So either they'll straighten out as they come in, or she'll look like Bugs Bunny for a few years.

So far she's been waking up a little during the night, but nothing major (please knock on wood nearby you as you read this). No fever yet, so hopefully the bottom teeth will continue to ease on out without much fuss.

Eggs Indoors

Little bug opened up her little Easter basket today and had a great time playing with the plastic eggs and also eating the paper tags on her swimsuits. I hope they fit, because there is no returning them now!

We took her outside to enjoy the fresh air and that is when the wheels fell off the bus. Little bug was not enjoying her Easter egg hunt. Daddy "hid" some eggs in the flowers, and she just started crying because she wanted to be back indoors. We tried to get her used to hanging out in her blanket in the grass, but she was not having it. So, our little city girl celebrated Easter indoors this year.

Mona Lisa

So 94 photos and a 20-minute photo session later, I think little bug has taken smiling lessons from the Mona Lisa acadamy. If you squint at the professional pics we just posted of her, you can almost see a smile. It was pretty entertaining watching us all jump up and down, and give her every toy in the place without getting a smile out of her.

On the bright side, she always stayed in the frame. Unlike the little girl who was 15 months who had a photo shoot after her, and just walked out of the picture every time they tried to shoot the photo. So, we aren't signing little bug up for any modeling contracts any time soon.

Barack Gets Applause

So I was listening to the replay of Barack's speech from last night. Little bug crawled to the laptop to watch what was going down. When he said that slavery was supposed to be abolished with the constitution, she clapped, as any good left-wing daughter should. Then she tried to figure out how to chew on the laptop.

Head Down

She has a new trick that she only uses with daddy. When he says her name, she glances at him and then puts her head down like she is shy. She peeks to make sure he's watching her.

She's done it a few times now, but only for him. It is really funny.

Little Vampire

Daddy had a bright red mark on his shoulder and we thought that it must be from carrying the diaper bag. We didn't think much of it, until we noticed that I had an identical mark on my shoulder.

When we pick up little bug at night to put her in the bathtub she has a little habit of sucking on our shoulder. Turns out, she's sucked on our shoulders hard enough to give us hickies!

Good thing they aren't where anyone can see them! Lesson learned, her little habit of sucking on our shoulders is over. Good thing she doesn't have teeth yet!

The Clapper

We were having dinner with little bug in her high chair and we were talking about savings plans, etc. I mentioned that if anything happens at work, I'm sure I have a severance package and Eve started clapping her hands for the first time! She was pretty excited about the idea that we are financially sound. She kept clapping even when I picked her up. She clapped her hands over my shoulder.

Fashionista

Since the weather jumped into the 70’s this weekend, I was inspired to pick up a swimsuit for little bug in Target (has to be a one piece, since her dad freaks out at the cute two-pieces). I held up two suits for her to choose from – a little tropical one, and one with bright flowers on it. She clearly has preferences. She leapt for the brightly colored one and started to pound on the flowers. Then she took the hanger off and chewed on it throughout the rest of the shopping trip.

My new Target equation is…one swimsuit + one hanger = one quiet baby

Standing Room Only

Little bug and I were playing in her room, and she kept pushing herself around with her legs so I held out my fingers to see if she would pull herself to standing up, and she did! I leaned her against the daybed in her room to play with her toys, and she stood up for about a minute or two playing with her toys, until she turned around to show me something and found out about how gravity works.

Click Clack

As soon as little bug started saying da-da-da-da and ma-ma-ma-ma regularly, she somehow learned how to click her tongue. I say 'somehow' which means 'her dad taught her'. Now, all she wants to do is click. No more consonants, no more screams - just tongue clicks, which she thinks are hysterical.

She clicks away to her toys, very pleased with herself. I wouldn't mind, except that she's starting to sound like the aliens from that movie Signs. Which is starting to freak me out. I've made it a mission to keep saying da-da-da-da around her to try to get her to a little less clicking and more talking. Unfortunately making noises are not as fun and exciting as clicking!

Blinky

Six months in and Eve has gotten her first eye infection. I thought she was just allergic to dogs (she was around a golden this weekend), and that was why her eyes were watery. After the second day of waking up with a crusty eye, I called the ped. Good news is that we caught it early, and with her eye drops (which she can't stand) it should be cleared up in a day or two. Plus, eye infections usually come with ear infections and her ears look great.

Since I had a client dinner to go to, poor Matt had to take her to the doctor, then to two different Walgreens since the first didn't have the right meds, then wrestle Eve down to give her eye drops and do the entire nighttime routine by himself. While I was across town struggling through really boring dinner conversations. I think it is a tie.

I got home in time to tuck the screaming monster in bed. She passed out and slept through the night, with only a little bit of a watery eye this morning to show for it.

Bouncing around the room

Our little girl is getting so tall (long? since she technically can't stand up) that I had to move her jumperoo gym up another notch so she wouldn't be able to bounce so high. It looked like she was going to propel herself out of the thing, like a clown in a circus cannon.

When she isn't giving herself whiplash in the gym, she's using her teething guitar as a weapon to bang on all of the toys attached to her gym. Such a delicate little lady...

One of her new favorite tricks is when daddy holds her and he runs on the hardwood floors, sliding to a stop, a la Tom Hanks in Big (but with better hair). She thinks sliding around fast is hilarious and holds her breath for dramatic effect.

We have consonants

Little bug said "da da" yesterday. It was ridiculously cute.

We've been working with her on consonants, we keep saying da-da-da-da and ba-ba-ba-ba around her. And daddy says ma-ma-ma-ma, which must really confuse her. I don't try ma-ma with her yet since m's are really hard, I figured I'd start with the easy stuff.

So, ever since Saturday morning little bug has been whispering to herself little sounds that sound like ta-ta-ta. But she only whispers like it is a big secret. On Sunday, she was jumping around like a popcorn kernel in her jumper and she came out with a loud, da-da. She then said it a couple of times, my friend even heard her.

Then, last night I was taking a bath with her and daddy came in to get her. She turned and looked at him and yelled, "Da-Da!". Daddy had a big smile, and of course, I teared up since I think my kid is a genius. I know she has no idea that he is her daddy, and I'm sure she'll start calling everything da-da - but it was a great moment!