Relaxing Doesn't Make Babies

Cuteness

March 10, 2011 — 11:22 am

Things that Kate is now doing, most of which falls under the category of “ridiculously cute”:

* Giggling at herself in the mirror. She smiles coyly, giggles, reaches forward to pat the mirror. She also likes to lean forward to give slobbery open-mouth kisses to her reflection.

* Touching everything with her index finger. I remember a day when everything was to be grabbed with a fist. Now that she’s perfected her pincer grasp she’s moved on to a form of pointing. She loves little buttons to press with one finger. She’s obsessed with my touch-screen phone (though it’s more “I’m going to keep touching the screen because sometimes cool things happen when I do it!” than anything intentional). Today she was crawling around after one of our cats, reaching out to touch him in the whiskers, forehead, nose, belly. (This is an improvement over the fur-pulling, even if it still managed to irritate him after a while.) Last night she leaned over to touch her stick her finger in her baby cousin’s mouth. She really like mouths.

* With the babbling she’s doing all the time now I get the feeling she’s trying to imitate some words. Specifically, “Kitty.” While crawling around after the cat she’d sit beside him and babble away, with the “da da” turning to “di di” and the consonants pushing to a t/k kind of sound. Once in a while it sounds almost like “titty” or “keekeh”. It’s still more accidental than anything, but I can tell there is some intention behind the babbling. Very exciting!

* She flipped through the pages of one of her books, pressing her finger onto the picture on every page, babbling the whole time very quietly as if she was talking to the book. Den and I were trying to record it, while trying not to distract her with our stiffled giggles.

* She is walking more and more now. She’s letting go of her toys to walk several feet into the center of the room before she squats down and puts her hands down to move into a crawl. It’s all very controlled, if wobbly. It’s so bizarre to look up and see her just standing in the middle of the room, babbling and waving her arms around in excitement.

* We now have “shouting” matches. She was laying in my arms saying, “Aahhhhh!!” and I said “Aaahhhhh!” back at her, matching her pitch. Back and forth, with her getting louder and softer and higher and lower, me doing the same thing. She found it very amusing. (So did I.)

* When I’m laying on her bed while she plays with her books she likes to crawl up onto me and then roll over so that her head is right next to mine – and her cheek is right next to my lips. Then she lays back against me until I give her the requisite “MWAH!” on the cheek. Sometimes she then sits up and goes back to her books, sometimes she stays there for more kisses and “Nom nom nom!”s until she giggling uncontrollably.

* She shares her toys and pacis with me. She’ll hold it up to my face until I pretend to nom it, then she’ll take it back before holding it out to me again.

3 responses to “Cuteness”

  1. Deborah says:

    I think “kitty” counts as her first word! If it’s clear who she’s referring to, and it sounds remotely like kitty, it counts (according to me, anyway). Yay Kate!

  2. Heather says:

    Awww, so cute.

    It’s so fun when they begin to talk. I remember listening to my girl babbling away day after day, and suddenly (or maybe not so suddenly) it morphed into real WORDS. One of my girl’s first real words was ball. Of course we heard her babble “bababababa” endlessly beforehand (along with mamamama, dadadadadada, etc.), but when we finally saw her pick up a ball, look at it, and then say “bah” very clearly, it was so exciting! And from that point on, my husband and I were constantly looking over at each other and saying something like “Did she just say boot?!” And then “I think she did!! And yesterday, I think she said kitty!” Such good times…

    Oh, and when my girl started standing up on her own, we thought it was so hilarious to look over and see her standing upright all by herself in the middle of the room. In the beginning, every time it happened, my husband and I would clap and cheer really loudly–because we just couldn’t contain ourselves. The baby thought we were so funny and would laugh at us–with her little arms flailing around trying to keep her body balanced. And then if she ever stood up and we didn’t applaud right away, she’d give us a confused look that clearly meant “What? No applause? Where’s my applause??”

    A coworker of mine who doesn’t yet have children once asked me what it’s like to go home to a baby every evening after work. (I honestly think he thought I was going to say it was a drag.) I replied that it’s like looking forward to Christmas morning as a kid. At the end of every work day, I have that excited feeling of anticipation I had as a child waiting to see what Santa brought me. I just can’t wait to go home to see that baby and see what she’s going to come up with next. What will she come up with next??

  3. Claire says:

    Hi there, Here from L&F. When I saw the note that you were coming up to the anniversary of Devin’s birth, I had to write. I haven’t been following the blogs much lately, but as soon as I saw the name Devin a rush of memories from your blog rushed back.

    I just wanted to say that he isn’t forgot.. at the moment I’m remember your and his story from Italy.

    And then when I clicked over to your blog, I was filled with a huge smile. Your daughter is so beautiful! I love the image of you anticipating with joy going home to see her.

    I wish you all the best.

    Take care, Claire