TALKING! BABY!

So the walking is going astonishingly (and hilariously) well -- she just motors all over the place now -- and with that accomplished, it seems that it's time to concentrate on talking. As you regular readers know, she's been clear on the concepts of "mama," "daddy," and "no!" for quite awhile (she even says, quietly to herself as she's going toward something she knows she's not supposed to have, "noi noi noi noi noi"). But she's making some serious leaps now:

--"Mama" is applied consistently to me, and not just to all food.

--"Dagrr" is her rendition of "Daddy," and again, she knows when to use it.

--A very breathy "Hi!" is deployed correctly, in answer to a "Hi!" from us.

--An inquisitive "ma!" means "more," as in more Cheerios, banana bits, or wheat bread chunks, and she seems so pleased when we get her meaning (almost always accompanied by a scratching or an open-handed smack of the surface upon which we are to deliver the requested "ma!").

--Funniest of all, she's got a word for "kitty," since there are two black cats that regularly park their butts in our yard to sun themselves and keep an eye on the gophers tearing up the grass. She'll spy one, a smile will just about break her head open, and she points and says "iggeh!", sometimes with a "k" sound in there somewhere (not always at the beginning). And if you say "kitty" any time, she gets all excited and looks around for it -- she knows, she knows!

Festival baby!

Last Saturday, per our tradition, we met up with the available members of the Sauce crew (this time Tom and Amanda) and walked over to Fog Fest. For the first time since we've lived here, it was actually foggy -- but it wasn't too cold, so we were all right.

Annika had tons of exciting things to look at (people, kids, dogs, balloons, giant sand sculptures, crafts & whatnot) and listen to (several bands, including one playing the 1990s Bobby Brown classic "My Prerogative," which we took her out of her stroller so she could bounce to). And true to her history as the Very Obliging Baby, she held it together for about four hours -- by which time the fair was closing and it was her dinnertime anyway!

Looking forward to next year, when she might be big enough to play in the kids' playground with all the other little maniacs!

WALKING! BABY!

We are prepared to call it -- there've been a few incidences of a step, or two, or three -- but yesterday, we both saw her stand up (in the middle of the floor, not pulling up on anything) and take six steps completely on her own! We held our breath the whole time, amazed & not quite believing it -- but she totally did it! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Go baby go! 

It's coinciding with her sleeping a lot and eating more, so we're pretty sure it's a growth spurt and developmental leap. We didn't have the video camera out, but we'll catch her walking soon so you all can see it. Rawk!

In other news: 

--High five! is her new thing. Hold up a hand, say high five, and she'll smack your palm repeatedly (with this huge smile & laugh). It's even funnier than her waving hi and bye-bye, if you can believe that. 

--Growling! She's doing a whole lot of imitative sounds and faces, and growling seems to be her favorite. She sat on my lap for 20 minutes the other day while I was working from home, with just the call-and-response growling (and laughing!) for entertainment. 

--Babysitting! Our friend Arthur from college was in town with his wife, Theresa, who was performing at a club in the Mission on Saturday night, so of course we wanted to go; no family members happen to be staying with us right now, and our friends were all off for a camping weekend (we ... don't camp), so we went out into the wide world of non-friend/non-family babysitting for the first time. I signed up with a website called sittercity.com, which lets you search by location and job type (babysitting, nanny, mother's helper, etc.), and see complete profiles of caregivers -- their experience, certifications (e.g. CPR), preferred ages of children, reviews from other parents, etc. You post a job, and people reply; you can also contact sitters from their profile addresses. We got a couple of good responses, including one from my top choice profile, Talia J., a college student with ten years of experience and lots of great reviews on the site. She was AWESOME -- I had been so nervous, but she just put us completely at ease. Everything went beautifully, we got to see Theresa perform and hang out with her and Arthur afterward -- and Annika never even knew we were gone. Heh. 

Vacationing baby!

Got back Sunday from four days in beautiful Santa Cruz, CA -- we rented a beach house there for our 16th anniversary, and spent our days relaxing, going for walks, hot tubbing, taking naps -- Annika caught up on what seemed like months of sleep debt and was a fabulous, sunny kid pretty much the whole time.

Most importantly, this was baby's first trip to the beach! We kept it short, because it was close to naptime, but also she couldn't be expected to handle very much sun. She seemed to really enjoy it -- those big eyes just taking it all in -- staring at the water, the sand, the sky, the birds, people, their dogs, etc. She got a handful of sand, and spent the next 15 minutes trying carefully and deliberately to brush it off. Heh. It was sorta like a cat with a piece of scotch tape stuck to its paws. At least she didn't try to eat it ...