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.