Friday, August 20, 2010

Ali and the Fork

Ali has become more and more interested in forks. (Well, I don't think it's the fork so much as watching us use a tool to eat with, but whatever.) So I decided to start letting her experiment with her own fork. I'm not expecting much, but it's fun to watch her learn!

At first she understood that part of it goes in your mouth, but I think she was confused as to which part.

Here, Mom. Show me again!

Like this, baby girl.

Now she's got it.

She thought about it for a minute . . . 
(what? I haven't told you Ali's newest trick? It's the pondering look. She puts a finger to her mouth and everything!)
While she thought, I got in a sneak shot of her feet. 
How adorable is she that she eats with her feet crossed loosely at the ankles??

She abandoned her fork for her trusty-yet-dainty fingers.

But then! She spied the *real* fork. The BIG fork. She was hooked.

Nope, not that end.

Now she's getting it . . .

Yay! The fork went from the food to her mouth! It's true there wasn't actually any food on it, but that's fork-usage 2.0. She's got the first concept down!

How amazing is it to watch a child learn something new??? Love it!!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Wordless Wednesday: 11 (months) going on 16 (years)


(It's a purple plastic phone. Awesome.)

Sunday, August 15, 2010

My New Favorite Thing

It's not that she takes everything out of a container and carefully puts it all in a pile before putting each item meticulously back IN the container.

It's not that she loves magic tricks and laughs hysterically each time a ball "disappears" and then "reappears."

It's not that she mimics the things she hears now, saying "ooooh" when she turns on her toy and "eaaaaahhhhh" when the cats meow.

It's not that she is now cruising along our furniture, getting to where she wants to go without help.

It's not that she knows how to put the magnetic letters back on the fridge and her bath toys back in their container.

My new favorite thing is a questioning expression she does, hands up, palms toward the sky, a baby-girl-voiced "eh?" whenever she sees something that she questions.

Where did the ball go?

Where did Dad go?

What just happened?

What did I do?

How did I get so cute?


Okay, not that last one. That's a question I find myself asking about her over and over again. Silly Mommy.

Monday, August 9, 2010

August, Sweet August

It's August. To some, that may be lamentable. The end of summer. The beginning of school. The dog days of summer, when it's so hot you don't want to do anything but sit in pool in the air conditioning in front of a fan while sipping ice water.

But to us, it's wonderful! August is here! A fact to be celebrated. You see, for us, it means that finally, after two busy, busy, busy months, months filled with traveling and visitors and more traveling, we finally get some much-needed family time. And I don't mean extended family. I mean our family. Our little family of three.

That's right. We're taking August off. Putting up the closed sign. No visitors. No trips. Just some time to spend together, enjoying each others company, enjoying our baby girl in the last few weeks before she turns one. September will come soon enough, bringing with it celebrations and trips once again. So now, we are loving, loving August.

Our first weekend of August was filled with friends. We had a birthday party and a baby shower to attend, and somewhere in there we found time to visit the local splash park, teach Ali new tricks, and give baby girl her very first pony tail!

Ali is at an amazing age where she is learning things at lightening speed. She is now pulling up on everything she can get her hands on and is starting to cruise. She can turn on her toys and knows how to chase the balls down and put them back in the chute. She's learned how to put the rings back ON the ring stand. She loves rolling a ball back and forth between us. She has developed quite the sense of humor . . . her current favorite joke is to pretend like she's going to feed me something and then at the very last second pull it back and pop it in her mouth. This joke cracks her up to no end . . . and that cracks ME up to no end. Oh, and did I mention she TALKS?? That's right! We have our first word . . . and second . . . and quite possibly our third, fourth, and fifth. The first word was "book" (you'd better believe this English-teacher-turned-editor mommy's heart just about burst with joy), followed closely by "no no no no!" (there was considerably less heart bursting going on with the second word). We have also heard "duck," "kitty," and "bear." Our little girl is quite the chatterbox, and we love every second of it!

What's a blog post without pics of our sweet baby girl? Enjoy.


Bath time is always fun!