Singing and signing

Crawling is pretty easy, it seems. They will both come down the hall to the nursery if we call to them, although there are lots of interesting diversions on the way; sometimes Adi just heads straight into our room without even looking into the nursery. They are both standing up a lot and doing some cruising. Adi is much better at sitting down by herself, too. And Mae even tried to climb this shelf in their nursery: she really wanted those books, I guess



When Adi is making lots of grunting noises and I say "how about some nice sounds" and sing to her "la- la- la- la" she'll sing a few syllables with me. She also likes to click her tongue-- and will beam with delight if we do it back to her-- and smack her lips, which her Grandma Bundy taught her to do when she is asked for a kiss.

Mae has started to babble: suddenly last Saturday Dave noticed that she was saying a lot. She points to things and repeats "ah-da", or "te-te-te". She really likes to point at the ceiling, as well as to things with a "dah" sound that seems like she's asking what 'that' is.

Both girls seem to know the sign for 'all done' (although not particularly accurately). And I think Mae is using 'more' spontaneously to get more rice puffs. ('All done' has been more difficult, because if we ask if she's all done, she'll do the sign and then we don't know if we should stop feeding her or not. She'll still open her mouth for a spoon, and still make the 'more sign' if we ask her if she wants more. So I'm not sure she gets the idea really.)

In general, Adi has become more adventurous with strangers and not-seen-enough friends; she'll occasionally smile at someone she doesn't know and is doing well with the other babies and mothers in a play group I've started going to. Mae is still outgoing but she's also showing more affection than she used to: it isn't uncommon for her to crawl over and lay her head on Dave or my lap.