Wow! It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything. I’ve been busy! Last week my grammy and pepere came to visit, and I got to go on a playground slide for the first time by myself. It was a small slide, probably as long as my daddy is tall. I wasn’t sure what it was at first - I went up the three steps, and that was fun cause I like walking up steps. Then I was at the top and daddy sat me down at the top of the slide but I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. Then he pushed me and I slid down and my mom caught me at the bottom! I was so surprised! I guess I was a little scared too, but when everyone clapped and said “Yay!” I realized that it was okay, and I ran back around to go on again. I went on the slide again and again and when I had to leave I was so sad I screamed!
I’ve been spending a lot of my free time learning how to dance. I’m really just teaching myself. I started with the step where I march in place fast, then I learned the dance where I twist and swing my arms. Next, I learned to wiggle my butt back and forth with my feet in place. My latest step is the side-to-side waddle where I walk with my knees straight. I’m gonna be a dancer.
My dad put up a video of me dancing, and you can watch it.
So I’ve got three words now. My first word was “E-I-E-I-O”. You can listen to me say that on a couple of my recent videos. Lots of times I miss the “O”. I’ll just say “E-I-E-I-E-I” or “Yie-Yo”. I also like “E-I-E-I-Go”.
I also say “Hi” a lot. A couple weeks ago, when my dad got home from work, he said “Hi, Lia!” and I said “Hi!”. That made him happy.
I’m also trying to say “bottle”, but I pretty much just say “Bao”. I say that one all the time, whether or not a bottle is involved.I just like to say it.
This is a video of me on Father’s Day, singing old MacDonald. I kind of say “E-I-Goo”, but I’m just improvising. The things you should notice here are:
- The face I’m making when I sing.
- The cool shirt I got for father’s day. Dad tells me that it says “KID” in binary.
- The dance I do at the end.
Also, I can’t sing while sitting down.
So, my dad finally put up the videos. The first one is my eating my birthday cake. Actually, I guess it’s me not eating birthday cake. Cause I didn’t really like it. In the video, I put a piece in my mouth, but decide against actually eating it, so I take the piece out. I get kind of upset about the frosting all over my fingers too. People were laughing at me, but I just don’t like having messy hands. Besides, I was really more interested in playing with the rings from my new birthday toy. It’s really cool - the rings stack up on this middle spoke thing.
In the second video, my dad keeps trying to get me to sing. He’s all happy cause I sing the chorus from Old McDonald. And I know that E-I-E-I-O isn’t really a word, so we can’t call it my first word, but it’s my first song I guess.
I’m laughing at daddy in this video cause he’s doing this funny walk where he’s squatting down to record me and walking behind me.
At the end of the video I climb up the stairs. I don’t usually do it unless someone is right there, cause I’m scared to fall, but I like showing off in front of the camera.
My birthday party on Sunday was fun. Lots and lots of people came over and had food. I got to eat a lot of new things, like meatloaf and grilled vegetables. I don’t like the vegetables so much cause they’re slimy, but the meatloaf was real good. I also tried whole milk from a cow for the first time, but I don’t like that sippy cup thing so much. Why can’t I just use the bottle?
I got lots of cool presents. I got a lot of books, and a bunch of cards. The cards were fun to play with. And I got this spoke thing with different colored plastic rings that go up and down it. I’m not good yet at putting the rings on - I miss a lot of the time - but I’ll get better. And I got my own cell phone. Not the old one that mommy used to use - that one doesn’t do anything anymore since they took out the battery. This one is big and colorful and makes noises! It says “hello” and “goodbye” to me!
But my favorite present is my new car. I’m not good at getting on it myself yet, but I can push myself around on it once daddy sits me on it. And it’s got a horn and a radio and a place to hold a phone! And you can lift up the seat and put stuff inside. I like to push it all over the house. Daddy says he’ll put up a video here soo so everyone can see me on my car.
They gave me cake too on my birthday, but I didn’t like it. I put it all over my face and in my hair, but I didn’t like to eat it. And I got frosting all over my hands and I couldn’t get it off no matter how much I shook my hands. It was stressful.
But I had a good birthday. Yay! I’m one!
I turn one today! My party isn’t gonna be til this next weekend, but today I’m a whole year old.
Tomorrow my Omi and Nanu (that’s my mom’s parents) are driving here from Kentucky to sing happy birthday to me. I met them a long long time ago but I know I’ll remember them when I see them.
Now that I’m one, I’m learning to do a lot more things. I like to stack things up now - I pull all the DVDs off the shelf and put them in a big pile, and I have a box full of corks, and I like to pick them out of the box one by one and put them in a different box. Sometimes I put them all on the cat.
Dad says he’s gonna record my birthday party so we can show everyone who’s not there. I can’t wait.
I know how to walk real good now, and I’ve got two videos to prove it.
First, I’ve got one of me taking my first real good walk, back when my Grandpa Chip and Nana Maureen and Uncle Sean were here. Everyone is standing around and cheering for me as I take all these steps. I even turn around and start walking different directions a few times.
I’d taken a few steps here and there, but this was one of my first real good walks. So that’s the first video.
The second one is a few weeks later, when I really learned how to walk good, like I do now. I fall down a couple times, but I’m walking around on the wood kitchen floor <em>in socks</em>! It gets real slippery, but I’m such a good walker now that I can do it anyway.
I fall down a couple times, but I can get back up now without even grabbing onto anything. I make my mommy and daddy chase me around everywhere now. It’s a lot of fun.
You can click the pictures to watch the videos.
My grandpa and nana and my uncle Sean left to go back to Connecticut yesterday. I liked seeing them all - they were a lot of fun. Mom says I get to see them again at Christmas, but that’s like forever away. I’ll be all grown up by then!
Anyway, we’ve got lots of pictures of all of us spending time together. I learned how to pull the hat off my grandpa’s head then put it back on. That made everybody really happy when I did that.
I’ve been walking for three weeks now, and I’m starting to get pretty good at it. I can usually make it across the whole room, but I still fall down a lot. By this summer, I’ll have to wear real shoes when I go out, cause I’ll be walking everywhere.
So guess what I’ve been working on? Walking! I can only take about two steps before I fall down, but I’m trying every day. Soon my dad says I can do this thing called a marathon.
I also learned a new game. When I’m sitting in my high chair eating Cheerios, I hold one out for my mom or dad, and when they try to eat it, I pull it away and I eat it. It’s so fun! I laugh every time. But like I think I said before, fresh bread is way better than Cheerios. I get it all broken up in tiny pieces and it tastes so good!
My dad and mom chase me around the living room sometimes. I’ll crawl away and I keep looking back to see if they’re still chasing me. Then when I run out of room I fall on my back and start laughing while they tickle me and blow raspberries on my tummy.
I’m splashing more and more in baths too. I learned that I can grab the washcloth, dip it in the water, and then when I shake it around, it gets lots of water everywhere. Sometimes I splash so much with my feet that dad has to take his shirt off to give me a bath.
My grandpa and nana and uncle Sean are coming tomorrow. It’s gonna be lots of fun I think.
My mommy is still in Candobia. I miss her so much. Daddy says that since she misses me too, we should put up another video so she can watch it and see me.
This video is me standing up and screaming while mommy is watching American Idol. The video is from before mommy left, so she’s actually in it. I got real excited when the people on the TV cheered, so I decided I had to cheer too. You can watch the video here.
I’m learning how to hold on to things and walk along them. Daddy said I should wait until mommy gets home before I walk for real, so I guess I’ll keep doing this for a while.
My top two teeth are coming in now too, and they hurt a lot. But the cool thing is that now I can bite Cheerios instead of just gumming them. I like to pick one up and bite off little pieces with my teeth. Teeth are cool.
