Smart Kid

I know I'm a little bit biased since I'm her mother, but I sure to think this kid is creative and smart.

Musical Child

We've always assumed Chloë would be a musical child. Sure enough.

In the last couple of months, she's taken a special interest in "conducting" music during church. Our choir director uses one hand to conduct the choir, and apparently Chloë has been paying attention. She'll either hold her index fingers out and wave them rhythmically, or she'll hold her hands out, palms down, sort of limp-fingered and limp-wristed, and bob her hands up and down to the music. She has great rhythm for a 1 1/2-year-old.

She also likes to sing. She's been making up melodies for quite a while now, but only recently has she started singing songs that are familiar to us. A couple of weeks ago, she was in the basement with her daddy. She saw the piano, and walked up to it, started gently playing a few notes, and started singing "looo-yaaaah, loo-yaaah." We realized she's seen me play and sing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" a few times in the last couple of months, and it must have made an impression. What a smart girl we have.


Then last week, she started singing "ole-eeee, ole-eee, ole-eee," undoubtedly mimicking a song she's heard in church.


And of course she's very fascinated with anything that makes noise or music: electronics, making a beat with her fingers on a tin can, or last week, her Uncle Daniel's harmonica.


It's kinda fun thinking about piano or violin lessons in a few more years. I'm guessing she'll be a natural.

P.S. My sister just happened to write a blog post about Chloë, and the correlation between being a firstborn and being smart. I think she's on to something.

Advent Treat

We've been doing a little "Advent Treat" every night after dinner. Last night there was a Reese's Christmas Tree in the little Advent pouch.


We had pizza for dinner before the Advent Treat. This kid loves pizza.

17 Months

Chloë is very much a little girl. Sweet and sassy, all in the same moment sometimes.


Tonight at dinner, Bryan and I were laughing hysterically at her frantically shoving pieces of chicken into her mouth, and then doing an open-mouthed teeth-grinding chew. She is hilarious.


If we are trying to get her to eat something she isn't very fond of, she'll hold a bite of food in her mouth for minutes at a time. We're working on that.

She loves brushing her teeth. When it's time to start the bedtime routine, we "get fresh" (what we call changing her diaper), put on jams, and brush teeth. She runs around the house shrieking "Teet! Teet!" in excited anticipation.

Chloë is a really friendly little girl. Whenever we're out and about, she seems to make a point to brighten someone's day; usually just by smiling and waving and saying hi. She really likes to say hi to other kids, and anyone even a tiny bit smaller than she is is a "baby!" She also likes to wave and say hi to to animals, and even inanimate toys and random objects.

A couple of weeks ago, we were hanging out with Ali and Sam, and as usual, Chloë used her extremely sweet and high-pitched voice to talk to baby Sam. At one point, she looked at him, held her arms out, and asked "Up?" So she held her first baby.


She was absolutely smitten. I think she's going to be a wonderful big sister.

She likes to talk on the phone, whether or not there is actually anyone on the other end. In fact, sometimes she comes up with the most elaborate conversations when there isn't anyone there.


She has added so many new words to her vocabulary, I've lost track. A few of my favorites this month are hair bow: "ah-bow," wash: "wash," stuck: "thduck!" apple: "ah-pah," and super "thuper!" It seems like every day she uses a new word that I didn't know she knew. Anything sweet and dessert-like is "cake." Last week her daddy taught her this weird deep growly voice, and she totally loves using it.


She loves books. Sometimes she'll even sit still long enough for me to read one to her. She usually prefers to thumb through them at her own pace, making up her own story.


We pulled her bouncy chair out of the closet a couple of weeks ago, and she really has a lot of fun in it.

(She says "bounce," and then does so while doing a little bit of her fake laugh. Then she sings a little bit of her favorite made-up song "sim-AH, sim ah," and then she gets "duck.")

She is a very sweet girl, offering to share all sorts of things with people she loves. Her food, her toys... we've even caught her offering her sippy cup to the grandparent's dogs.

She is just a very affectionate girl. If I'm not feeling well and resting on the couch, she'll sweetly pat my arm or back or shoulder, sometimes even doing her best impression of her daddy's massages. She'll rest her head close to mine and say "Oh, Mama," and give me little kisses. It absolutely melts my heart.

She is still extremely cuddly, when she's tired, or when she's just being sweet.


She's great at stairs. If I leave the baby gate open, I don't worry. She loves to crawl backwards (or slide feet-first on her tummy) down the stairs, and spend a few minutes exploring and playing by herself. It doesn't take too long for her to get lonely, and she wanders back upstairs to be in the same room I am in.


This month we introduced Chloë to the fun world of drawing. She loves it. I was surprised at how naturally she held her drawing utensil.



She loves to push buttons. I think it may stem from her finger-picking fetish. If she has something with a button or two, she's as happy as a clam for quite a while. Our new car has the little remote lock key ring, and the other day she sat on my bed, happily pushing the buttons over and over for a good 20 minutes. If you offer to share your cell phone with her, she will be your new best friend.

(I think she looks so much like the pictures of her Uncle Samuel when he was a toddler.)
She's getting really good at her daddy's iPhone, too. She's known how to "unlock" it since she was 9 months old. Last month she managed to change the date on my iPod to January 1974, and somehow deleted a couple of my apps. So now both the iPod and the iPhone are password protected in order to unlock them. But I get the feeling it won't take her much longer to figure out that 1-3-7-9 is all it takes to access the amazing world of touch-screen fun.

She loves going outside. She loves putting on her hat and scarf and coat and shoes, and waiting by the door. She would live outside if she could, I think.


We took a few pictures of her all dressed up and playing with a balloon. She thought it was pretty great being the center of attention.

16 Months

My little girl is growing up. She'll be 16 months old tomorrow. Last month, I said that she had officially started walking, but that she was still hesitant to do so on our hard wood floors. The day after I wrote that post, we were out doing some shopping, and Chloë decided she was tired of the stroller. So she walked up and down the aisles, quite pleased with herself. Since that day, she has been very confident in her walking abilities. She has an adorable stubby-legged walk, and gets around really well.

Speaking of stubby legs, the sizes she wears in clothes in kind of hilarious. Just recently does she fit into her jeans that are size 6-12 months. Because she has a long torso, she usually needs 18-24 month size shirts to cover her belly. But, she's skinny enough that she can still wear dresses size 3-6 months as tunics. So basically, she wears all sizes of clothing these days.

Her new words this month include Chloë: "coe-ee," coffee: "cah-yee" hot: "aht," eat: "eat," cake: "cake," tickle: "tey-ah," chin: "nin," forehead: "ah-yahd," Bella: "Beh-bah," Eva: "Ah-yah," Betsy: "Bets." It's getting to the point where she says so much I can't keep track of what's new. Since she is our little parrot and repeats everything, I only "count" words that she uses without prompting.

She loves playing with Bella and Eva. They really get along so well. Chloë and Eva invented a game a couple of weeks ago, where they sit side by side on the step two steps from the bottom of the stairs, and bounce up and down laughing hysterically at one another. I'm amazed that such simple things can be so much fun. And shaking the bars of the crib is apparently a great game too.

They also like to stir up mischief together. I was watching Eva for a couple of hours yesterday, and they were playing so well together, and then I realized things were very quiet. So I went into Chloë's room, and discovered the two of the playing with and emptying bottles baby shampoo, baby lotion, and diaper rash ointment. The baby shampoo was everywhere. At least it was just shampoo. But the thing that gets me the most is that my child was sitting there, running her finger through the puddles of shampoo, licking it off her finger, and going back for more. But she won't drink milk. I just don't understand. Needless to say, I think it is time to reevaluate the location of some of the things in our home. Our trash can, for example. She found the coffee ground puck from my espresso, sitting nicely on a pile of trash, and must have thought it looked tasty. She came around the corner with a look of displeasure on her face. As well as coffee grounds.


Last week we decided to introduce her to the fact that there's a baby sister in Mama's tummy. I know she doesn't really understand, but it is so sweet when she kisses or pats my tummy. We'll tell her to kiss Mama, then Daddy, then Baby Sister. And she does. And it's so cute.

This girl loves to laugh. She loves to be tickled. And she looooves being chased by her Daddy.


She also reeeeally loves her pacifier. But since we've established that it's only for "night night," she sometimes decides that she's "seepy seepy" and asks to go "nie-nie" just so she can cuddle with Mama and suck on her binkie for a few minutes. Then she pulls the binkie out of her mouth, hands it to me, and is off to play some more.

When she does sleep, she still prefers to be next to (or on top of) Mama or Daddy.

She has been doing this thing lately where she randomly uses both her index fingers to plug her ears. She'll do it for a minute or two, sometimes releasing for a few seconds. It must be funny muting everything.

We've seen some very defiant behavior this month. Not that we're surprised, but it still catches us a little off-guard when we give her a basic command ("come here," "put it down," etc.), and we can tell that she's making a decision to do the opposite and disobey. Sometimes it's hard not to laugh at how silly her tiny rebellion seems. For the most part, we're constantly impressed with how much she understands, and how eager she is to obey and please us.

She gets around really well on her Radio Flyer these days.


She has started doing this thing where she has a finger in her mouth when she's chewing her food. I don't understand how it can be comfortable, but I guess there's sort of a gap where her canine teeth haven't come in yet. So we're working on manners. She's a pretty good eater, but isn't a huge fan of vegetables (we're working on that, too). And she still doesn't like milk. She'll have it with her cereal, but that's it. So, every morning, she has cheerios with some half-and-half mixed with whole milk. This month she had her first doughnut, and (surprise!) loved it. I bought some of those mini doughnuts covered in powdered sugar, and she sure had a great time eating a couple and getting powdered sugar everywhere.

Last but not least, this kid has some serious dance moves. I love it.

15 Months

Our little girl is 15 months old. I think she's pretty great.

I mentioned earlier this month that Chloë started walking. Which she has. But she's a very cautious walker, and really doesn't like to walk on our hardwood floors. If we're down in the basement, where there's carpet, she'll walk everywhere. She's still a little wobbly, so she falls sometimes. Which is why she probably doesn't like to walk on the hardwood. So she still crawls as her main method of mobility, but she's making progress.


Chloë is getting more teeth! She currently has six on top (two of which are molars), and she has three on bottom, and just in the last few days had three more break through the gums (again, two of which are molars). She loves having her teeth brushed, and gets super excited when she sees her toothbrush.

You'd think with all those teeth she'd be eager to use them on food, but she's proven to be quite the picky eater. I have sort of thrown my hands in the air for a couple of things that she just hates: oatmeal, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And she's very particular about texture. Bread is great, but only if it's not too dry (or toasted), and she recently has decided she hates the crust. Oh dear. And she hates milk. At her check up with the doctor last week, this was our biggest focus of "concern." She needs the calories and the calcium, but she decided she hates milk a month ago and started refusing her morning and nighttime bottles. I haven't given up on re-introducing it in new ways, and she'll have a little with cereal, and loves cheese and ice cream, so she does get some dairy. There are some foods she loves, like her ham or turkey and cheese sandwich, with mustard and mayo (and butter, to sneak in a little more dairy).



Speaking of her Dr. appointment, Chloë is down to the 15th percentile for weight. I could stress about it, and worry and feed her potato chips all day long, but I won't. She's perfectly healthy. I don't doubt she would have a little more chub if she was more sedentary. That kid moves all the time. Even when she's sitting in her highchair, eating. And when she's falling asleep. Yeah, she's a calorie burner, alright.

Where she lacks in walking ability and weight, she makes up for with talking. She is such a chatterbox. A parrot, really, as a friend recently put it. Even if she doesn't know the word, if we ask her to say something, she'll try it. In fact, she'll echo the entire alphabet, one letter at a time, if she doesn't get distracted. I realize her enunciation leaves something to be desired. But being her mother, I understand her language pretty well. It sure is convenient to know that "cuh-keys" means hungry, despite the fact that it sounds like a very clear "cookies." She probably uses this word the most throughout the day. She'll crawl over to her highchair and say "cuh-keys! Cuh-keys!" sometimes once a second if she thinks she's about to starve to death. Thankfully I understand many of the basic things she says and asks for. "Sah" for some, when she sees something she wants. "Duts!" is cheers, and she'll raise her sippy cup and toast. Other new words this month include: spoon is "poo" or "spoo," cereal: "seh-zuh," cheerios: "choo-choos," yuck: "guck," all done: "ah nun," wipe: "why," down stairs: "tis," walk: "wah," balloon: "bah-boo," sleepy: "sthe-pah," glasses: "gah-yas," help: "ahp," Louella, "weh-wah," car: "cah," bye bye: "buh-bye." She loves shoes, and asks to wear them, pointing to her dresser saying "sue! sue!" Her daddy taught her that getting her diaper changed is getting all fresh and clean, so diaper change is called fresh, or "shesh." She's getting good at her anatomy, too. Hair: "ah," nose: "notes," eye: "aye," teeth: "teet," tongue: "tah," belly button: "beh-bah," knee: "me," or "nee," toes: "totes." She's good at saying what something is when she's pointing to it. She doesn't quite understand personal space, and if the mood strikes, likes to point out a friend's body parts.

I skinned up my knee a couple of weeks ago, and since it's been warm, I've been wearing shorts. Chloë is an attentive and sympathetic girl. About a hundred times a day, she would see my knee, stop whatever she was in the process of doing, and point to it and tenderly say "atch."

For as much as we understand, there is still an awful lot of chatter that we don't understand.


We've established that her pacifier is only for naps and bedtime. She still prefers to sleep on top of or right next to one of us. But if she has her binkie and Bear, she'll give Bear kisses, pat and hug him, and snuggle on a pillow and fall asleep. Often times in the afternoon, when she's starting to get sleepy, she'll ask for Bear and binkie, and say "nie nie," and then will have a moment of relaxation on the couch. After the moment passes, she'll hand me her binkie and hop off of the couch, on to her next adventure.


She still loves reading. Recently she has been patient enough to let us read through an entire children book. She used to get too excited about turning the pages (and sometimes still does), but she'll actually listen to the story now.


She's discovered her nostrils, and occasionally sticks a finger up her nose. (Don't have a picture of this. Oh well.)

She figured out her Radio Flyer toy this month. She can get on and off the thing, and she even figured out how to make it move.


She absolutely loves sunglasses, and will snag them any chance she gets and try to put them on. Here she actually has the earpieces on her little pigtails.


One of my friends had a baby a couple of weeks ago, and we've had the pleasure of seeing Baby Sam a couple of times now. Even though Chloë doesn't quite understand what qualifies as gentle, it has been heartwarming seeing her being so affectionate to the new baby. She'll light up, and point, saying "bay-bee!" and kiss his head or some part of the blanket he's wrapped in. She'll sweetly "pat" him, although I've had to intervene, because as sweet as it is, it's still just a little bit too much like gentle hitting. If Sam is in his car seat, she likes to rock him. I feel pretty confident that she's going to be a great older sister.

Chloë Walks

Chloë started walking on Saturday. She's been walking along furniture for months, and even took a few independent steps last week. But now we can officially say that our daughter can walk.

We were in Seattle last weekend visiting our friends the Dowers. Louella is two months older than Chloë, and walking and running around like a champ. I think seeing Louella walk everywhere, and the fact that their apartment was carpeted, were big contributors to Chloë finally trying out the walking thing.

Singing, Reading and Eating

Cream, Piggy Bank and Couch

Here are a few videos for Chloë's ever faithful fan club.

Chatterbox

Seriously, this kid does this constantly when we're in our daily routine. Sometimes she talks to me, but a lot of times she just talk to herself. She sure makes life a lot of fun.


She's really telling a grand story here. I just wish I could understand her.

I was browsing old posts, and found this video of "Tummy Time and Talking" and the last video on this post. She's changed so much in nine and ten months!

13 Months

Chloë is 13 months old now. I try not to call her "baby" any more, even though it's so hard to call her anything else. She isn't officially a toddler yet, and "girl" just seems so grown up! But she is growing up, and getting big.

She's eating like a grown up now. We make sure she has lots of fiber and fruits and really try with the veggies. Today I got her to eat peas by putting a little butter, sour cream and garlic on them. She has a big smoothie every morning for breakfast, and then usually has a quesadilla or PB&J for lunch, and whatever we're having for dinner. She snacks on cereal or crackers or deli meat and cheese, and drinks out of sippy cups. She'll have milk in a bottle, but not in her sippy cup, which is really weird. She still has four teeth on top and two on the bottom (with more coming soon, we think), and does really well taking bites out of just about anything. She's a lot of fun to eat with.

Chloë likes to bonk her forehead into our headboard when we bring her to bed in the morning. She'll just stand there and bonk her head over and over. And she's absolutely loves it when I tickle her, and we often have a good tickle session in the morning. She's great at high fives, and still likes to pick at fingernails when she's mellowing out.


Besides Mama, Dada, Papa, Mimi, Dog, Amen, Truck, Cracker and Nose, she also knows Hi, Up, Down ("Dah"), Hot, Cold ("Coe"), Cool ("Coooo"), Uncle Sam ("Saaaah"), Out Side ("Ah Sah") and Baby. Today we realized that when she claps and says "Pah kah, pah kah," over and over, she's saying Patty Cake.


We taught her four signs, and that's probably all we'll do since her vocabulary is taking off. Please, More, Thank You, and All Done have been very useful.


She has some good tricks, like showing off how old he is. She is a super speed crawler, especially if she thinks she's being chased. She walks along furniture and walls and the kitchen cupboards with ease. She can get up and down a flight of stairs no problem, although we make sure the keep the doors and baby gates latched.


Sometimes she's really silly, and we just discovered that she like sunglasses.


Chloë is a really sweet and affectionate little girl. She loves to pat a shoulder if we're holding her, and she loves giving us kisses. Often times if one of us asks for a kiss, she'll just go back and forth 20 or 30 times, kiss for Mama, kiss for Daddy, until she's all full of kisses.

She's pretty great.

Chloë's Birthday Party

We had a fun little birthday part for the One-Year-Old on Saturday. We tried to plan it so all of our immediate family could attend, but it's just impossible to do, we found. But we did have all of the baby's grandparents, most of her aunts and uncles, a set of great grandparents, and a few close friends.


Tissue paper flowers, and a birthday banner: my creative attempts for the party.


Mmm, food! I made "my" jalapeno popper dip, which I really just adopted and adapted from allrecipes a couple of years ago. Always a hit, especially with the guys.


The Birthday Girl!


Chloë greets guests as they arrive.


Aunt Katie shares some food with Eva and Chloë.


My mom's parents, Jack and Madelaine Moses were able to be come all the way from Oklahoma!


We were so excited that the Hughes' were able to be there. We've missed them since they moved to Florida a year ago.


And we're super bummed that the Dowers are moving to Seattle this coming weekend. We really are gonna miss these people.


Chloë trying to be sweet and share with and encourage Louella, but the poor girl had had a really rough day.

Time for Chloë's first birthday cake!




She didn't even cry when we sang her happy birthday.

I decided to go ahead and take her cute little shirt off so that she could smear strawberry shortcake everywhere.










She really seemed to enjoy it.

We opened a few presents.




All done and all tuckered out.

Monkey, Cereal and Truck

Chloë Says Amen

She's been saying this for a while now, but rarely on command. I finally caught it this evening at dinner.

Kisses and Chatter

I went up to Sandpoint on Saturday with my dad and my daughter. We went to my old friend Johanna's wedding. It was in the forest in the mountains, and it was a beautiful day. I didn't take my camera, so I have no pictures. But we had a good time and got to see lots of old friends. And Chloë gave her Mimi and Papa lots and lots of kisses.

Giving kisses is her favorite new thing.


She also likes to chatter whenever things get a little boring. Or if they get exciting. Or pretty much all the time. Sometimes she copies the sounds we make. But sometimes it seems like she is intentionally saying something different.

11 Months Old

We were out of town again this last weekend, so I've been catching up on things, including sleep. But here's what has been going on with my baby this last month. I went a little overboard with the videos, but the baby's Aunt Katie was asking for some. So here goes!

Chloë officially started to crawl this month! Almost a month ago she just decided she was going to make it happen. There were a few days where she could crawl three or four paces, and then flop onto her belly to army crawl. Then one day, I watched her crawl across the house. Slowly, but deliberately. And then she had it. The poor baby somehow loses traction and slips once and a while, falling forward and slamming her chin on the hard wood floors. Her two sharp little bottom teeth are not kind to her upper gums, and there is blood and loud cries for a minute or so, and then she has a nice bruise for a week. She is a tough one.

She pulls herself up on just about everything now, and can usually figure out how to get down, too. She likes to walk along the coffee table, and will inspect anything that I might have left there.


One day she randomly backed herself off the couch. Now she does it whenever she gets tired of my kisses.


She has been cutting her first upper teeth, complete with the sad whimpers at night, fever, and the super drooling and diapers to go with it. Three out of four of the teeth have broken through the gums in the last week and a half, and we're hoping to see the fourth and be done with teething for a while. She has just been so sad, and we have had lots of cuddle time.



When she isn't overcome with sadness, she plays well by herself for short periods of time. She likes to inspect and figure out toys and look at books.




Still a very active baby, I worry just a little about making sure she's getting enough calories. She seems so skinny compared to most of my friend's babies close to her age. I know she is completely fine and healthy, but her rolls just aren't as abundant as they used to be. Clothes are getting tricky. Her tiny waist and stubby legs means she is still wearing 3-6 month size pants. Which is hilarious. They look so tiny, but they fit her perfectly. Shirts that are 6-12 month size fit her pretty well, but long sleeves aren't quite long enough any more. Anything size 12-18 month fits her well in length, but is very baggy. Good thing she's a baby and doesn't seem to care how well her clothes fit. Her eyes are still mostly blue, and her hair is getting longer. We haven't tried pigtails yet, but she does the fauxhawk quite well, I think.


She is such a weird eater. She still loves to nurse. She gets excited and starts grunting in anticipation when she sees me pull the nursing cover out of the diaper bag. But, we've slowly been cutting back and introducing more solids. This month we realized that she is not a fan of bland food. Chicken and rice mash, pureed? Yuck. But add garlic, chili powder, cumin and salt, and she goes crazy. We stumbled upon this realization after her daddy let her taste some mexican rice, and she started bleating with delight. We've been feeding her lots of leftover chicken biryani: a dish with chicken, rice, broccoli, coconut milk, onions, green chillies, tomatoes, salt, chili powder, garlic, ginger, coriander, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves. I think she has a palate advanced far beyond her 11 months. She also loves to chew on all kinds of bread, crackers and chips. She does pretty well gnawing off bite size pieces, and sometimes uses her bottom teeth like little saw blades, sawing a cracker or cheerio back and forth for fun, I think. She'll still eat cheerios, but I get the feeling she thinks they're a little dull. When she's eating something she likes, she'll rock back and forth in her highchair. But if she's eating something she is really excited about, she will wiggle side to side. Since she's been extra picky this last week with her teething, I've been introducing all sorts of new things in an attempt to get her to eat more. I'm still avoiding giving her dairy, egg whites, peanuts and strawberries.

Speaking of wiggling, this baby can dance. She'll move her whole body back and forth; hips, shoulders, head... she certainly hasn't seen anyone dance like that, so it just amazes me how innate it is to groove to music. If she isn't standing and can't dance, she'll hold her arm out, palm down, and move her hand up and down and side to side to the rhythm. She'll move to just about anything with a tune or a beat, from my cell phone ringing, to her daddy's loud electric noise, to the hymns at church. She's just too cute.

She's a face maker. Licking her upper lip, scrunching up her face, puckering (she leans in for great kisses, by the way), or doing a classic bitter-beer face, she's a hoot to watch.




Chloë understands so much, sometimes I'm just amazed. One day she just put her hands together and started clapping. I said "good job, you're clapping!" and then she would preform for anyone who asked her if she could clap. In fact, she starts clapping if she hears applause of any nature (live, a random YouTube clip, etc.), even if she can't see anyone else clapping. She also signs "please" now, and will just sit there, patting her chest eagerly if she's being fed.

She's going through another round of separation anxiety. When it is just the two of us at home, she will usually start sobbing if I leave the room unless she is engrossed in some toy. So we hang out a lot. She does like other people, when they're around. Occasionally it will take her a little while to warm up to someone new, and then she likes to be her hammy little self. Sometimes she will act shy and touch her cheek to her shrugged shoulder, but usually she just wants to show off and will wave and clap like she's the center of the universe.



She understand so many simple commands, and it is so amazing to see her contemplate the sounds we make. We made a fire in our fireplace a couple of weeks ago, and we pointed to it and said "No touch. Hot." She looked at the flickering flames for a while, and then pointed and said "dot. Dot."



Whenever I ask her to say "Mama," she looks at me and usually says "Dada." And I'll say "no no no, say MA MA." "DA DA." I don't know if it's her own little game that she knows she's winning or what, but it's kind of cute. She likes to babble when she's playing, but she seems to have developed some particular noises when she's sad or tired, especially "mmmmmmmm-hmm" and "duh daaaa duh daaaaaa."

She likes to experiment with noises, including her recent "ptah ptah" sounds.

And there's this funny lip bubbling thing she does.


She is still not very good at sleeping. Her naps are sporadic and hard to predict, as is her bedtime. Sometimes she'll sleep pretty well at night, and sometimes she wakes up frequently. She has been sleeping in her crib most nights, but I still have a soft spot for bringing her to bed with me if she's sick or having a rough night.

Less than a month until my baby turns one. Woah.