Anyone who has spent any time with Meredith probably won't believe it is possible, but she is even happier now than she used to be. Her more advanced mobility and communication just seem to delight her to no end, so that often she toddles around smiling and giggling.
Just last month the big news was that she was walking, but that is old news now. She still crawls occasionally and falls over often, but she has pretty much joined the two-legged club. I actually think she falls on purpose sometimes- just to sitting or all the way over, slowly toppling backwards. She seems to think it's fun but doesn't know to look behind her to make sure there isn't, say, a metal stair railing behind her. We have a playpen full of balloons left over from their birthday and she loves throwing herself around in it, falling backwards and bouncing. Physically, she seems very resilient- not too worried about bumping her head or getting hurt. She dives over the beach ball, often landing on her head and gets up giggling.
When they were a week old, our pediatrician told us to talk a lot around the girls, even just commentating mundane tasks. So I've gotten in the habit of talking to myself or thinking out loud. And now I suddenly feel like someone is listening! When I ask what used to be a rhetorical question, Mae will look at me like she's really trying to understand and respond.
She's been making giant strides in talking, often insistently repeating a syllable when I can't figure out what she's saying. She doesn't really reference me as 'mama' to my face but she calls Dave 'dah'. Actually, she says 'dah' for a lot of things, but I think she really is saying "Dad", "dog" and maybe "doll." Her most advanced word is "thirsty"; you might not believe she can say it, but when Dave was teaching her the sign-language sign for 'drink' she started saying "thu-thee" while she did the sign. Words with "th","sh", "ch" or "ss" seem to delight her: she also says "chee" for cheese & cheerios (it probably helps that they are two of her favorite foods) "sh" for shoe (also a favorite item) and fish and "suh-suh" for sister. Oh, and she calls Adi "Aa-ah". She says "boo" for balloon and book, "ba" for bath and balls and "bah-bah" for bye-bye. Animal noises have started to come, too- the sheep says "baaah-baaah" and the horse is a pretty good "neigh".
I read in a magazine that a two-year old should know about 10 parts of the body and I (competitively, I'll admit) counted up that many that Mae will show you when you ask: toes, feet, knees, legs, belly, hand, fingers, chin, nose, tongue, ear, eye, hair, head. While breast-feeding, she entertains herself by pressing on her nose, my nose, then Adi's nose (and I oblige the game by saying who's nose it is). I definitely feel like I'm bragging (I hope you don't mind!) but it's just so amazing to ask her something that I genuinely don't know if she knows or not, and see her point to it.
One of Mae's favorite activities is draping something on her head, which we interpret as "dressing up". She likes to place hats on her head (or bring them to one of us to really put on), holds bibs on by pinching between her chin and her chest and pushes shoes and slippers against her feet. In this picture she's not so much posing as feeling the hat, or maybe pulling it off in order to get it put on again. (The hats, by the way, were knit by our friend Samantha and the girls have been wearing them since they were 6 weeks old (see First Outing). The sweaters were given to us by Megan, our sister-in-law, and match the hats extraordinarily well).
But she also drapes shirts, pants and blankets over her head. We got a big laugh one day when she put a sweatshirt over her head, covering her face, and toddled at high speed across the room-- right into a cabinet!She is also very vigorous in her shows of affection, often almost running across the room with a big smile and throwing herself into our laps. Unfortunately, the same technique against Adi knocked them both over with so much force that Mae cut her forehead on one of Adi's teeth. But she can be gentler, especially when I'm offering structural support, and will give Adi a hug or "kiss" when she is crying.
And another favorite activity is climbing into boxes. Toy boxes, cardboard boxes, a corner "boxed" in by toys where she doesn't really fit... Their soft toys are in this brown box, which she can get into but can't quite get out of (the third picture).
She is getting more assertive with Adi although she usually just whines to me, making the sign for 'more' (I want in their language) when Adi takes something of hers. The one object I reserve for her alone is Annie the (anaerobic) Lion, which she has finally attached to. Attached to her nose, specifically, which she likes to bite.
Since it has taken me some three weeks to write this, I suppose I should publish it while she is still 13 months old! Here is the parting shot...
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