toofy (a.k.a. katya)
Toofy, as she is now called by her near and dear, is growing like a weed. A good weed, you understand, like a dandelion. The name Toofy comes from her two large (but still a little short) front teeth. Her smile is now a toofy smile.
Toofy is a sassy puss these days. She chases the dog and the cats in her walker. She carries our plastic yellow gallon jug of vegetable oil across the kitchen. She eats carrots, broccoli, macaroni, cheese, and baloney with her hands. She eats cereal, yogurt, apple sauce, squash, garlic herb goat cheese and babaganush from a spoon. She can drink from her sippy cup by herself and she can hold her own bottle.
She loves to swing in the swings in the park. She just laughs and coos and laughs and coos. She can slide down the slide of her own accord. If you count, 1 2 3, she will lead forward and beam all the way down. She claps and gives high fives (and fours, and sometimes ones). She points and says “PaPa,” “Bahbah”* and “Buah.” She likes to feel the backside of our teeth and she tries to scratch off our moles.
Life is never quite dull when Toofy is around. She doesn’t crawl and she doesn’t walk but she does roll. She can roll 4 feet in 5 seconds. She rolls to get her stray toys. She rolls to examine the underside of our reclining chair. She rolls to stay close to her mommy. She likes to practice standing and she sometimes moves her feet like walking. But one thing about Toofy is that she goes at her own pace and for the most part she doesn’t seem to be in a hurry.
We are still reading many of the same books but her favorites are constantly changing. Pat the Bunny had been out of favor for a long time but has recently experienced a great resurgence. Her literary horizons are expanding: her favorite book right now is really my book. It is called “Your Baby and Child” and it has lots of pictures of bahbahs. Whenever I pick it up it is imperative that Katya sees the bahbahs.
She still thinks farting from the mouth is by far the funniest sound to make – but she has just discovered the puckered kiss sound. She has a wide variety of other sounds too. The most common recently is a regularly repeating (extremely insistent) moan of frustration which indicates serious teething (and sometime just general annoyance). When she is not being entertained by one of her parents, grandparents, or occasional guests, she remembers how much her mouth hurts and she moans. Her fifth tooth made its appearance beyond the gum yesterday and we think 6, 7, and 8 (not to mention 9 and 10) are on their way.
Sadly, Katya’s mommy has just been ousted from her starring role as bedtime singer by a stuffed green foot-tall frog. Baby Tad (as it likes to be called and consequently announces before every singing session) sings The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Where Oh Where Can My Little Dog Be, Hickory Dickory Dock and a number of other timeless baby hits. Baby Tad is also able to simulate a full orchestra and indeed some of its songs don’t have any words at all. Baby Tad can also make that puckered kiss sound and does so right before saying “I LUUVVV you.”
Katya is doing really well with her signs. She can now sign for “milk,” “more,” and “eat.” The other day in the park when her grandmother tried to take her out of the swing, she signed for “MORE.” We are now working with her on some new signs, like “cat,” “dog,” “airplane,” “bird,” and “bed.” She is more and more observant. She now has many objects she has to visit each day – and the list is growing. She has the ceramic pumpkin, plants and little wooden man downstairs. On the way upstairs, she has to greet the bead at the end of the string to the light fixture of the room in which she naps when she stays with her grandparents and the stained glass light in the entrance hall. Just today she noticed a yellow glass sun that hangs on our window. She demanded to visit it at least five times before she went to bed.
And she loves to play peek-a-boo, although she knows the game as just Boo. She plays it with books, toys, bibs, clothes and kitchen utensils. But the best is when we put her to bed, we let the blanket fall over her face. She usually waits completely still for many seconds before suddenly kicking and dramatically uncovering her laughing face.
*Bahbah = Baby