Walking! (With a little tiny bit of help)

Happy Halloween from Chicken Baby!

Nora the Explorer

Nora took her first steps tonight!! Just a couple of lurching steps toward me, and then toward her daddy-- but it's the first time she's ever tried moving around without something to hold onto. More thoughts on this, and hopefully some video, in the next few days. I just wanted to record this news right away!

A Couple of Funny Things.

Nora claps and smiles when there's applause on TV-- particularly when the Daily Double is revealed on Jeopardy.

She's started mimicking us much more-- right down to Rich's beleaguered sigh when I don't laugh at his jokes.

She is such a funny little social being-- when we're laughing, she looks back and forth between us and laughs merrily, as if to assure us that she gets the joke.

Her "doggy" is much more well defined than last time I mentioned it. She pronounces the two syllables quite distinctly, putting rather more emphasis on the last syllable and sometimes saying "goggy." Sometimes she points right at Baxter when she says it. Other times, she just repeats it over and over again, in bed before getting up for the day, while eating or getting her diaper changed or whatever.

She points appropriately, too-- practically batting her bottle out of the way and pointing emphatically at my glass of water last night, for instance. Or she points to direct us where to carry her. She's quite demanding, now that I think of it.

She also understands two-person play more now. She loves to be chased under the dining room table-- her giggle is ridiculously delightful to hear.

We had my family over for dinner last night, and Nora was "on" the entire time-- laughing and mugging for everybody, chattering away, participating in the table talk. She never seems to tire of socializing. I think she thought she was the one throwing the party.

And she's super huggy. I'll sit on the floor while she plays, and every few minutes she'll crawl over, put her arms around me, and lay her head on my shoulder while pat-pat-patting me. What could possibly be better than this?

I love her.

Gimme a C. A Bouncy C!

Perseverance

One of the things I admire about this kid-- which also causes trouble at times-- is her focus and determination. Here she's toddling around with her little walker, busting through obstacles and picking up the walker to point it in the right direction when it gets stuck. While certain people (coughgrandmamacough) might pick it up and rearrange it for her, she really is capable of so much, it blows me away.

Spinning and Bouncing

Ahh, there's nothing quite so much fun as spinning and bouncing, and spinning, and bouncing, and spinning some more.