Lydia Log: Month 8

Excitement!

Knee, wobble... hand. Knee, wobble... hand. Repeat very slowly and watch as baby Lydia inches across the floor, her mouth agape and her face contorting with concentration, coaxed on by whatever toy we happen to be keeping just out of her reach. We all knew she was close to crawling forward (see Sunday's post), having been at the "downward dog" yoga pose and the "falling backwards across the floor" stage for a few weeks. We like to think that her breakthrough came while trying to imitate Terri and I on our hands and knees, slapping our palms on the floor and grinning like idiots (ahem, out of encouragement). In truth, her progress spawned from a pursuit of material possessions - a carrot in the form of a beeping toy phone dangled in front of her nose - which doesn't bode well for our plans to raise her communist. Whatever - success! This (yesterday) was a huge day. Huuuuge. Also - the cats have no idea what they're in for.

Re: talking. Advancing from the now-standard "eeeeaaaaooooiuuuuu" and "aaaaaaaaieeeeeeeee", she is making definite consonant noises now - "sh", "st", "b" and "dddd" especially. When on her back, looking up from the change table, or struggling to crawl around she often can be heard mumbling "ya-da-da-da-da", which is close enough to "Dada" for me. The exaggerated way her bottom jaw bounces up and down is reminiscent of the "yip-yip-yip, uh-huh" Muppets, without the furry jowls of course, and with much more drool. It seems she is only a few bpm away from being able to sing scat jazz - a development I will not actively encourage.

In addition to the above notable developments, throw in (i) sleeping through the night (until 5:30 or 6:00 anyway), (ii) sprouting teeth, (iii) escaping half-naked from diaper changes, and (iv) eating cheese nibbles, Cheerios, bread, and macaroni pieces - and yr up to date. Things is happening fast - fortunately we have obscene amounts of digital footage to document it all.

A-baba, dadada yo.