SHE WALKED!!!

Fiona took her first steps about 5 minutes ago! For weeks we've been thinking she was ready because she would walk while barely holding on to Mommy or Daddy, but she still held. But this morning she pulled herself up to standing against the hallway wall, I knelt down a bit out of reach and asked if she wanted to walk to me, and she took three steps and fell into my arms.

Pretty awesome. She's been up to a lot of other great stuff the past few days which I'll get to in the next post.

Movies You Won't See

Fiona has a new game. She gets mom and dad to each take a hand (or finger) and help her walk around the apartment. When she's walking with just one of us, her walks usually consist of a one-way or (at most) round trip excursion across the living room. With both mom and dad, however, she can do lap after lap after lap after lap of the space.

It would make for a very cute video, but since we lack the budget for a full crew of camera operators and instead have to do our own videography, you'll just have to live with the description.

Bye Bye Bottles

In a transition that was probably more emotional for parents than child, Fiona has had her last formula bottle and is now drinking milk out of cups (and quite a bit of it--you don't realize how tough it is to get three cups worth of dairy into your child each day until you start trying).

I won't miss cleaning and sterilizing her bottles every night, but it does mean less snuggling over a bottle on our laps, since Fiona is more prone to take a few sips from her cup, charge off to play with a toy, come back for another sip or two and then charge off again than she is to take in the whole drink in one go while sitting with mom or dad.

I'm guessing there will be further changes like this in the coming years. Not too many teenagers rest on their parents' laps while slowly sipping milk. And those that do are a little creepy.

Wobbling

Over the weekend I let go of Fiona while she was standing and she stayed upright for a second or two (I was there to catch her, before you start calling the child welfare authorities).

She's also getting good at walking while only holding on to Mommy or Daddy with one hand. This allows the other hand to be free for important things like picking up toys that are way too big to be carried around practically by somebody under 30" tall. It also helps Daddy achieve a permanent stoop just in case the uncomfortable positions required by bathtime weren't doing the trick.

As we've found before, Fiona can look like she's on the verge of a milestone for quite a while before it actually occurs, but this is awfully close to walking.

Increased Manual Dexterity Can Be Good, Too

Fiona has started stacking blocks. She can consistently build a tower two blocks high, which is actually a little precocious for her age (not hugely precocious, but ahead of the curve nonetheless).

She's also a fan of knocking over towers of four or five blocks that her parents put together. No surprise there.

I've been using the phrase "building blocks of..." for years; it's very cool to see actual building blocks in action.

We Just Reproduced for the Free Maid Service

Over the weekend we were folding laundry on the sofa while keeping a few items within reach for Fiona to play with. She grabbed one of the washcloths and knelt down and started scouring the floor with it. She then rubbed the sofa in a clear cleaning motion.

I'd like to say that she was imitating behavior that she sees Mommy and Daddy doing all the time at home, but we're more likely to say things like "we really need to clean this weekend for real" than "boy is my elbow sore from all that scouring." So score one for day care; Fiona's imitating the cleaning behavior she sees from the people she sees three days a week. If only it were safe to put a little spic and span on those washcloths and set her loose on the kitchen floor...

Move the Bath

Speaking of bathtime, one of the dangers of increased manual dexterity is that Fiona figured out how to turn the faucet on in the kitchen sink while we wash her. Since the faucet had to be turned over the counter to make room for our little bather, this led to water all over the counter, which meant that we now needed two parents on bath duty: one to wash, the other to hold the faucet shut.

We've moved to the bathtub now. Back pain to follow.

fionaspeak

Boy, you fall far behind quickly if you miss a few days. Catching up...

Since one of the first phrases Fiona understood was "leave Buddy alone," Andrea and I joked that the first word she said wouldn't be Mommy or Daddy, but Buddy. And, sure enough, we were right: on January 6th, the night before her first birthday, Fiona looked at the cat and clearly shouted out two syllables which were unmistakeably "Buddy!" (the "D" wasn't particulary defined, but there was no doubt about what she was saying).

Since then, Fiona's had a bit of a verbal explosion. She won't speak on command yet (gee, that sounds like I'm talking about a dog)--I can't point to myself and ask who I am and have her say "Daddy"--but we have heard the following words on a few occasions:

• Buddy
• Daddy
• Mama
• Bathtime (we sing a song to her that features the words "bathtime baby" prominently while we draw the water)
• Hi
• Bye

And there are several others that aren't decipherable yet to our adult ears, but Fiona is clearly speaking.