Category: Daughters

MDF’s vocabulary is growing daily. Yesterday she started saying alagator, not correctly, but it started out as “aaagh,” and eventually ended up as something with more syllables that sounded closer.

Other words she can say are (in no special order): Mama, Dada, Dixie, dog, kitty, ball, eye, hair (?), down, out, bird, more, and uh oh. She also can sign some words, such as more, dog, bird, and fish. Now all of these often require the fine tuned hearing of a parent, 😉 but many of them are quite clear.

This past Sunday, Ruth came to church with Galina (who was playing the piano) and she was very ticked by the things MDF said. During the first half of the service she sat with MDF, and while I was walking up to take offering MDF saw me and said, “Dada!” Ruth thought it was very funny.

MDF got a new baby doll this weekend. She found it at a yard sale (for $0.50! A high priced child we have!) I think this makes her fifth doll. They’re one of her favorite toys (after Dixie).

Another one of her favorite things is to play outside. It was has started getting cooler lately so we put her in a toboggan. A couple months ago we couldn’t have gotten her to wear a hat, but now she likes things on her head and you can tell she thinks she looks good when she’s wearing something.

Last night, while CDF was at BSF and MDF and I were at home, I put on a rock CD. After listening for a moment, MDF went over to the speakers (on the TV actually) and started dancing. She was only bobbing and twisting, but obviously dancing (at least obvious to a parent 😉 CDF says she does this a lot when music is playing.

I’ve noticed MDF babbling more over the past week. She’ll normally just babble to herself, and not necessarily to anyone else. When she does respond to others it’s by saying “hmmm!” in a questioning tone (to get a better idea see the expression below).

When the stroller was inside, CDF was helping her push it up and down the hall. She tries to reach the handles we use, but has to settle with grabbing on to the basket at the bottom and pushing there. She’s quite good at going up and down the hallway, but she can’t turn it like she can with her other walker toy.

I’m not sure I have written about the words MDF can say before. For a while she’s been able to say Mama, and her enunciation hasn’t really changed any. She was saying dadada (but not necessarily Dada) for a while, but she’s mostly abandoned that. Now her new word is Dixie. It doesn’t always come out the same way, but she definitely means the dog when she says it. Also we can say “where’s Dixie” to her and she’ll look around for the dog.

We’ve also tried to introduce her to some sign language, but she hasn’t seem to pick any up. This morning I signed “more” every time she was ready for a bite of breakfast and she finally put her hands together in imitation of my movements (but she also knows how to clap, so she may not have linked the movement to the words yet).

Last night I was playing the drums with a guitarist named Rick, while CDF and MDF watched. This was the first time MDF has seen or heard me play on my drums. I was worried she might be bothered by the noise, but on the contrary, she liked it. For a while she just sat, watched, and smiled. Then she stood up at CDF’s legs and danced and even tried to sing. 🙂 She even got up the courage, near the end, to crawl over and touch my drums, but then she wanted to crawl in the kick drum, so CDF came and picked her up.

We took a walk on the beach yesterday. Tropical Storm Alex is sitting off shore and we wanted to see if it was stirring up anything on the beach (other than waves, no).

MDF has not liked the beach up to now; neither the water or the sand. But yesterday I decided to put her down and let her walk on the sand, whether she liked it or not. She was uncertain at first, but once she figured out it wasn’t much different from walking anywhere else, she took off. I tried to keep her from stepping on sharp shells, but she didn’t care and just keep going ahead at full speed.

CDF was down by the water and we made our way toward her. Now MDF was also afraid of the water, especially the waves, but this time she kept on going, straight into the water and toward her Mother.

Since everyone had a great time, we’re going back this Friday.

Tonight CDF went to a quilting meeting and I stayed home with MDF. That seeminly innocent statement turned into a evening of adventure. Not quite trouble, so I’m calling them adventures.

We started out playing on the floor, pestering Dixie, and eating crumbs around the kitchen table. Then somehow we made our way back to the computer room where we discovered a little “car” (see below) that was just big enough for her to ride. Not thinking, I put her on it and pushed her back and forth. She loved it. We went through the hall, into the living room, kicked the dog out, and went back down the hall.

Ridng a Scooter

I didn’t yet realize how much she was enjoying it, that is until I decided I was tired. I tried to get her off, but she clung to the handlebars. So we went around some more. We tried to stop again, but she wanted to keep going. Finally after the third time of “driving” around the house (I think the total was now about 15 minutes), I decided that it was time to stop. She fussed and fumed for a few minutes, but calmed down when we started getting ready for a bath (one side note on that: wait until the last minute to take off her diaper).

She’s gotten big enough where I can sit her in the tub without the baby seat. I keep a careful watch on her and she’s done fine so far, but normally I only let her out of the seat for the last minute before I dry her off. Tonight I decided to not use the seat at all and let her sit in the bath by her self. She splashed a lot and even was brave enough to crawl after a toy (the water is shallow enough for that). It was actually easier to wash her that way, I didn’t have to try to get around the seat and I could turn her around if I needed to. Near the end she got some water up her nose and that was the end of the fun and so I got her out.

Whose birthday? Why MDF’s first birthday. That’s right, CDF has started planning the event. So far everything is under control, but you never can tell with first birthdays. We’ve made reservations for a shelter at Hugh McRae park, one near the tot playground. I think we have four hours starting at 3:30 pm.

The guest list is around thirty-five people(!), but we’ve yet to send out invitations and I suspect that up to half of them won’t be able to make it (that’s how it usually goes anyway). Fortunately we’re only doing cake and ice cream and won’t have to feed everyone.

We were up at my parents this weekend for Heidi’s birthday party (21!) and were having a cookout in their back yard. They set out a blanket for MDF to crawl on and she loved it. She would play for a while in the middle of the blanket and then crawl to the edge to feel the grass. She went back and forth many times. CDF and Ruth took a bunch of pictures so I’ll have to post one here.

MDF was also interested in the cats and dog that my family has. She especially liked to watch the cats. We tried to get close to both of them, but they’re really shy.

Another thing of note, when we went by CDF’s parents’ house before heading home I noticed that Sparky has become calm enough for me to let her sniff MDF. She’s actually better than Dixie in one important respect: she doesn’t lick!