Daphne's First Signs

Daphne Frances, 11 months 3 days:



I caught Daphne in a very important "not interested in the camera" mood tonight during dinner. It has been SO DIFFICULT to get a video of her doing anything lately, because as soon as I start to record her she climbs right into my lap trying to get to the camera instead of performing whatever talent I was hoping to capture. Tonight, her little bean-and-rice-covered self showed the camera most of her signs (although I forgot a couple that she can do). The sign for baby (which she's also trying to say) is cradling your arms against your chest and rocking, like you are rocking a baby. You can see that she grabs her wrists and twists a little after she gets angry. I think the rest of the signs are pretty easy to figure out. Anyway, she's tired, dirty, and a little angry... but she's also signing!

Daphne, 11 Months!

Sweet Baby Daphne! Last month birthday before she has a REAL birthday. Let me tell you, she is doing so much these days. Here's a list of her new tricks, most within the last week.

-She plays peek-a-boo, alternately covering her ear, head, and face... then laughing when she uncovers herself and says, "boo!"

-She now also signs elephant and dog

-She says, "woof," "night night," (nie nie), and tries to say "baby" (baba)

-She repeatedly hit her baby in the face with a play bottle tonight. I'm pretty sure she was trying to feed her. She also cradled her.

-She still waves at everyone upon meeting them, and it's very important to her to wave goodbye to everyone, too.

-She loves animals, and is very interested in signs. She points to animals in books and waits for a sign. She's tried signing "birdie," and wants to sign "cat" but can't quite figure it out. Maybe she's just trying to say "meow."

-She puts hats ON

-For a while now she's been helping get herself dressed by holding out her arms and pushing them through her shirts.

-She's a mover! She thinks she's a big girl, and she boogies and crawls to keep up with them. She has started crusing in the past few days, too.

-Oh! And last week she found a pencil (oops) and wrote with it, jubilantly, all over a chair.

Here are a few pictures of Miss D. enjoying her 11 month bday at her sister's friend's party in the park:

Daphne waves and signs "fish" all the time, now. She understands that "fish" can be the toys in the bathtub, or her favorite snack. So she signs that a lot. She has her own sign for "more" (slowly clapping her hands together), and lets me know she's done in her high chair by waving her hands in the air, her version of "all done." So cute! She also signs "goodbye" by waving, of course, and it's her favorite thing to do. She's so stinkin' cute; I often tie her on in one sling or another and kind of forget she's there for a few minutes. The past couple of days while she's been in the sling, she's made a point of turning around and waving while saying "ba ba!" whenever we leave a friend, school, the store, etc. She wants to be noticed, and she has something to say! Yesterday we got frozen yogurt with a couple of friends who have 4 month old babies. They were in their carriers, and Daphne made a point to lean in and wave at them. She's such a social little thing. Also, she plays very well by herself. While I'm at home cleaning or something she's very happy to sit in a pile of toys and find mischief. She also loves books and being read to. Love this baby!

She'll ONLY feed herself, thankyouverymuch:

But knows it's naughty (her "ah ah ah!" sign):

Meanwhile, Violet is growing up SO FAST! She is a writer, I tell you. She can write pretty much every letter on her own, so to write cards she just needs help spelling. She MUCH prefers markers over crayons. Messier, brighter, what's not to love? Here's a sample of her best writing to date: it's a birthday card to her cousin Claire.

Cute things Violet still says:

Hop-grasser (grasshopper)

Her went to the store

I don't correct her grammar often. That will come soon enough, and her little girl speak will be gone forever. Sniffle.

A final note: I'm not sure when this blog entry was started, but it's 6:21pm on 2/7 right now. Daphne just did her first poo poo in the potty. Bummer that it was preceded by her first poop in the tub, much to her delight and Violet's absolute HORROR. Here I thought I'd just sit here and get some blogging done while the girls played together in the tub. Instead, everything is wet and I had to clean out the tub. Ah. It was pretty funny, though. Glad I wasn't in there, heehee. So forgive the formatting. I'm just going to hit publish before it gets any crazier here.

Friday 2

Daphne will never know a mother who can't make pancakes, lucky baby.

Friday Morning

Friday mornings are fun when there's no school. I have finally conquered the pancake!