MIA

I guess I dropped the ball for a bit.

It's a gorgeous spring like day here and our active little 11 month old was itching to distract herself from yet more teeth. Jim and I took her out to a cafe then followed a line of strollers around the Folsom Zoo. Jim had never been and was as impressed as I am with the up-close experience and their rescue philosophy. With the brisk, clear weather every beast was out of their cubby.

At home it's hard to keep up with miss busy body--she's into everything thing and all over the house for hours on end. Just when I think it's nap/bed time, she surprises us with a second, third, and forth wind. She puts her head down, quietly sucks on her fingers...then bam, she's leaning back, bouncing up & down, looking at me with a big toothy grin on her face. She loves to chatter and is pretty good at declaring uh-oh both before and after she tosses something to the ground. For awhile I thought she was muttering "ow" a lot, but then I realized she's often mimicking our ultra-talkative cat, it's just a form of "meow." So, she speaks cat too. Excellent.

The worst part of the day is getting her dressed. I should really watch old episodes of Crocodile Hunter for technique in handling her rolling and writhing. There have been bets made around that task, like "I'll take out the garbage and clean the litter for the next month if you dress her this one time..." I think she's always hated changing but it's just more difficult as she gets stronger and bigger.

A new talent is dance. Toys that play music, the car radio, music on the overhead at stores and restaurants...she almost never misses the opportunity to shrug her shoulders and bob her head up and down to the beat. I love it and hope it's a sign of more rhythm than I ever had. Along with playing, to stay busy indoors I just picked out a new crawl tunnel at Ikea. It happens to be turquoise and fits into her bedroom perfectly. She loves seeing one of us peaking in the other end as incentive for her screaming little, frantic body to race through...the best $15 dollars I've spent.

Next, we're very excited to see what she thinks of the personal cake and frosting coming up in just 25 days! My mom has been working with her to hold up one finger and learn to blow out a candle for the big day.

Here's Jim, procrastinating the difficult jammies on process.