Vivian is going through explosive growth in her cognitive, physical and social skills. She had been taking a few steps here and there but on the day before her birthday, she decided to entertain the Thanksgiving crowd with lots of walking. I think she just wanted me to be able to say "she was walking by her first birthday." And so she was! Although she still crawls to get further than 5 feet or so, I know in a few weeks it will be all walking, all the time.
Her signing repertoire has expanded to include 'milk,' 'all done', 'please' and 'thirsty.' You might think that 'milk' and 'thirsty' would be redundant but she seems to have a passion for water (or beer or tea or really anything in an open glass that she can sip before sticking her hand into). We've been using 'please' at the table to try to cut down on her screeching; it seems like she often wants one particular thing (like my beer...) and will push everything else away until she gets it.
Her social tricks have expanded; she will push on our noses to get us to say 'beep', she can now touch her own nose, and I think she knows where her feet are. But most endearing is that she's started kissing: leaning in and saying 'mm-wah', even through the bars of the gate at the top of the stairs. She also blew kisses for the first time to say goodnight to her birthday guests. She's been clapping for a while but now will imitate a picture of a baby clapping.
She is also taking things in and out of boxes or bags; a sock drawer can amuse her for quite a while. I've seen her learning about relative size by putting a small container in a larger one and then trying to do the reverse. And this morning, I was able to load the dishwasher without interruption because she was fascinated with trying to put the ring-shaped handle on her empty sippy cup.
She has finally reached the developmental step of handing toys to people (and then getting upset if they don't hand them back). And she seemed to be teasing Mae one day by offering her a piece of tofu then pulling it away when Mae reached for it.
Speaking of food, her favorites at the moment are cheese, yogurt, pasta, blueberries and cucumber. She has had the good taste to refuse all store-bought tomatoes (those from the garden were a favorite). She seems to like most things at some time and then won't eat them at all at others: vegetable soups, oatmeal, a few cold cereals, tofu, salted seaweed sheets, bananas.
Books have become a favorite item: she'll pick one up and bring it over to someone to read to her, although she often loses interest after the first two pages. And her fine-motor skills don't allow her to page through them (even the board ones) by herself. Whereas a few months ago she was mostly into animals, now she likes pictures of babies or cartoon-y books the best. She also liked the pop-up books for a while, well enough to learn not to touch the tear-able parts, but at the moment doesn't want them at all.
She's pretty good at telling us what she wants or doesn't; perhaps this is a skill one learns with two doting big sisters. Her hand will push away anything she doesn't want, from a cup of milk to a kiss to 'last week's' book. And I believe that she considers me her PTD: personal transportation device. Once I've picked her up, she'll direct me around the room with an outstretched hand, indicating that she wants to, for example, beep the nose of the macrame santa, view the picture of Adi as a baby, touch the plant and then grab a coffee cup. I get the distinct impression that she doesn't care so much about any of these things but likes to have control over her pack animal!
She also loves climbing-- the stairs, the step stool in the kitchen-- and can even get on the couch by herself. Early on we started to teach her 'feet first' to get down so now she can get off the couch by herself, and at least is in a safer position to attempt the stairs or the bed. However, she has also fallen off a lot of low things (like an ottoman, or the first step from the entryway) when I wasn't looking.
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