Baby Steps

Alyssia has been pulling up to a standing position like a champ for a couple of weeks. In the last two days, she has started letting go of her prop and balancing. She has the most wonderful look of simultaneous satisfaction and surprise on her face while she's balancing. When she falls back and lands on her bottom with a thud, she propels herself forward to a crawling position and then promptly pulls herself back up to try again. It's wonderful to watch! I have to figure out how to post videos like my brilliant little sister has done so everyone who loves Alyssia can see these initial triumphs. Today, for the first time, she took 5 or 6 steps towards me as I held her hands over her head. She wasn't too sure if she liked it at first, but after we tried it again, she seemed to enjoy it a little more.

Nana is here visiting and today she started teaching Alyssia how to crawl up the stairs. So many new things are happening. In fact, she has also started talking more. She now says the following words: mama, dada, yay, oh yeah (I'm not kidding), down, up, bobo, and no. She also points to herself or pats herself on the head when I ask her where my baby is. I love that.

Something else about Alyssia I love--this may sound silly, but I love her little feet. Oh those little toes! Those perfect little toes. She likes to play the "little piggy" game with her toes. I remember my grandmother playing that game with me. She also loves it when Ben plays the stinky toes game with her. He puts her toes up to his nose, makes a horrible face and squeals, "PEEE-UUUU" She shrieks when he gets to the PEEEE-UUUU part. It's fantastic.