Thar she blows!

Another beautiful holiday weekend here, folks -- foggy, cold and grey, exactly like it's been for weeks (well, we did get two nice days in there). Oh, well ... this baby's enough fun to make up for the lack of summery weather! So, here's what's been happening in Annika's world lately:

--Grandma M visited for several weeks, splitting her time between us and her other grandkids in Sunnyvale. She got to see a lot of incremental development, go on a bunch of walks by the ocean with the baby, and of course take a million pictures and some videos. Also, we got a chance to go out a couple of times (once Annika's down for the night, she's pretty much good to go) -- thanks, Grandma M! 

--She's begun handing stuff to us. There are two main variations on the theme: handing a book to you, with the clear request for you to read it to her, and giving you a toy or other object so that you can make it do something (like the Easter rabbit sent by Great-Grandmother Nean --Daddy pulls its tail to make it scoot across the floor; baby watches in fascination, picks it up, looks it over, then hands it back to Daddy to make it do that again). 

--She's experimenting with hiding and visibility. She's been doing peek-a-boo forever, but she's really stepped up her game, using all kids of things to hide behind, from my T-shirts to small chew toys that only cover part of her eyes. While we're pretending we can't find her, she peeks out of the side, checking to see if we can really still see her or not -- it is hilarious to watch the gears mesh in her mind while she's figuring this out. 

--Walking is imminent -- she's getting quite good at walking holding onto only one hand (or using only one hand to "cruise" along the furniture), she can stand for a long time by herself, and she's trying to take steps unassisted. Aaaany day now ... 

--Clapping. She'll applaud for anything -- especially herself, for standing or because she handed you something -- and always with a huge smile.

--We saw a whale! Dad went out for a run Tuesday morning, and came back after just a few minutes, saying he saw a whale pretty close in. So we all hustled out to see if the whale had made its way to our cliff, and sure enough, it had -- two of them, we think, one bigger than the other. We saw tails, spouts, and that arcing dive they do, as we watched for about 15 minutes. We're pretty sure she was impressed.