Twinkle

No matter what every day Fiona's is a bright little light. In the months since I've religiously blogged she continues to develop a personality unto her own. The contradiction of what a big girl she is versus how much she's still a soft, little baby amazes us. More than expanding her verbal skills, she's grasping the intricacies of communication more and more. Since she was about 7-8 months old I've repeated little sign language gestures for common things like "milk", "more," "kitty," "doggy," "all done," along with the simple yes & no nods. It must have been churning around in her little head just waiting to burst out because suddenly she's tapping two hands together to demand "more" and about 75% of the time "yes" means "yes" and "no" means "no." My favorite new phrase is "night-night" or an eager nod to the question, "night-night?" She's often happy to let me know she needs her nap or is done for the day. What tired mommy doesn't like to hear that?
Somehow she eats enough but is a little pickier now-a-days, more partial to anything she can cram in her mouth herself or stuff we're eating. Favorites are strawberries, graham crackers, yogurt, gold fish crackers, green beans, cut tortellinis, and anything with marinara sauce. Before she was a year she tossed the bottles- Fona only wants a cup or sippy cup and likes it even better if it's whatever mommy or daddy is drinking. It's best to see in person but over breakfast she's gotten into the habit of popping a single cheerio a top each heaping spoon of yogurt while simultaneously sounding "boop...boop....boop..."
She loves her books and seems to understand their basic images like the bunny in the bed is going "night-night" or the duck says "quack, quack..." Brown Bear is still top on the list as she likes to be asked to find each animal as she sorts through pages searching for the right picture. After Fiona gravitated to Karen's little girl Brooke's toy kitchen and dolls, Carolyn showed up with Fiona's first baby doll. Without prompting our baby cradles and feeds her baby a bottle... what a little mommy she is!
She tools all around house steering push cars and putters about the driveway on her tricycle...She mostly enjoys the pool but is hesitant to get her face wet. Climbing, rocking her little rocking chair, sorting and unpacking anything she finds...all perfected skills. Walking, however, is a different story. Our child does not want to give up the security and speed of crawling. She can walk, she has walked, but in a flash she'll drop to the ground for a fast get-a-way or grab hold of a cart to roll out of site. I suppose there's a whole new set of precautions for avid walkers so I should be thrilled but the suspense is driving us all crazy!
If you haven't seen her lately you'll be surprised when you catch site of this little person. Here are some of the latest pics. You may notice I had to take down some of the earlier albums to make room on Google. I'm trying to figure out the best place to post video and photos and will eventually re-post everything somewhere accessible.

Bye Bye Zoe...

For many reasons this has been an "off" week. Hitting closest to home was the sudden loss of our Zoe dog this morning due to a rapidly transpiring canine illness called gastric tortion. (It's a bloating process leading to gastric twisting & constriction in large breed, big chested dogs, requiring emergent surgery, high risk of complications, and a long, painful recovery.) After waying pros & cons with the Vet Hospital staff, Jim & I felt Zoe would be most comfortable if put to rest. She was a lovely, gentle shepherd, who tolerated a toddler's growing curiosity of doggy ears and snout, and who no matter how frustrated I was with her underfoot, insisted on looking out for me with every trip I made up and down the stairs and faithfully protected my shower door. I will be a little more paranoid of that Psycho scene without my girl standing guard. :(

Zoe and Fiona April 2008.

Easter #2

Fiona last year at this time...

Only a year later and our big girl searched for treats...eggs full of dried fruit and puffs Carolyn brought over in the afternoon. Grammy unveiled a new swing that was supposed to be a birthday gift but as it was too pretty of a day she handed it over early. We had to move our festivities to the driveway when the sprinklers suddenly sprang into action.

Aside from asking "hut's that?" at everything, sometimes I think she says "no" and she's quite fond of calling for "kitty." Her aversion to meats has passed as long as she's able to hold a stick of chicken and bite off pieces herself ( I give her those pre-cooked strips from the cold cut section) and she's drinking whole milk mostly. We try for a mornign and evening bottle with cup in between but success depends on her mood.

The big day, that happens to be just 36 hours away, we plan on celebrating by taking Fiona to one her favorite, loud and colorful, breakfast diners for pancakes and whipped cream. Daddy has a few work obligations in the afternoon and Fiona has her one year MD check-up (poor booh needs a few immuniztions). We're saving the family cake and presents until Saturday as we all need to celebreate surving this first year!

The big kid's park...

February 28th, 2008

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.