Doodle Update (9.94592922 Months Old!)

Ok, so I made that 9.945 etc, etc up - but E is ALMOST 10 months.  In fact, TOMORROW she will be 10 months :)  6 months old was a big step for her because she finally started sitting up on her own - and that opened up a whole new world of possibilities for her (and for us!).  So that was cool, but Jesse and I both agree that the last 2 months have been pretty spectacular in the BIG SHOW we like to call: Doodle Discovers The World.

First up, she has really added to her baby sign vocabulary - she is so interactive!  She likes to use her sign for "more" (which is actually funny to see because she does it by banging one fist into her open palm - it looks like she's saying "Why I oughtta . . .") for LOTS of things (book, cracker), pretty much whenever she wants to emphasize something.  Soo maybe she IS saying "give me - OR ELSE".  So aside from that, other words she signs are: car, bath, moon, stars, light, bye-bye, baby, diaper.  She recognizes a bunch more - mostly ones revolving around food - but she doesn't do them herself yet. 

Next, she is becoming something of a locamotive genius (not that we're biased).  Now that she's been pulling herself around for a couple weeks, she's able to transition between tummy and sitting and sitting to tummy to creeping much more quickly.  If she see's something she wants, she gets that she needs to get off her cute butt and HEAD IN THAT DIRECTION.  Last night we were out in the front yard with her and the grass was tickling her belly, so we're pretty sure we saw her first real bits of "crawling."  She wasn't super psyched about it, but somehow she got from A to B without letting her belly drag along the grass! 

The food arena has gotten more - let's say - interesting as well.  She is staring to shun the spoon (at least when mommy wields it).  I thought at first she wasn't hungry but then she'd keep making the sign for "more" and getting upset when I'd bring the spoon near her mouth.  Sure enough, if I handed the materials over to her, she happily began smearing it EVERYWHERE - including into her mouth.  It's hard to tell if you're not paying attention, but she actually gets about 70% of the food into her mouth.  The rest does get flung about quite a bit, but we're guessing it's all part of the process for her.  And now that it's warmer up here (85 degrees today!~) I can just dunk her in the tub after a particularly enthusiastic meal. 

It just seems that she's so much more - I'll use this word again - interactive these days.  She points at other babies and they point back at her.  She listens to music and starts flapping her hand to the beat like a little rapper.  She imitates the sounds of things we're saying.  I swear (and I've got witnesses to vouch for me) that the other day I held the phone up to her and said "Say: bye bye, Daddy" and she imitated the words perfectly!  We are pretty sure that she is calling me "mama" now, so who knows, maybe she's saying "daddy" too - she just refuses to say it to Jesse's face :)  She is also getting better at playing by herself.  I had a paper to write this week and she was pretty content to make a huge mess in the "baby salon" while I typed away - blocks and books everywhere!



So that's the story of the Doodle these days.  She makes us laugh, she makes our hearts happy.  She makes us slow down.  She reminds mommy that "messy" isn't a four letter word (well, it's a five letter word, but you know what I mean).  She hangs out with daddy on the front porch, counting the cars and the dogs that go by.  What more can we ask for?