Arms up!

Alice continues to amaze and delight. She's such a little gem -- her personality comes through more every day, and boy is she SILLY! Lots of fun...

New tricks: Alice's main drive continues to be gross motor development. She's an adept walker now, with little difficulty stopping to bend over, pick something up, and continue on her way. She's especially keen on carrying this week -- as many little lovies as she can - her coco bear bunny (the CCBB, named by Lizzie, quite clearly); a little blue matchbox car; empty seltzer cans; cups, bowls and spoons from the kid drawer (which she regularly pillages).

Alice is a climber. She'll go up pretty much anything -- over the edge of our quite-deep bathtub, onto the armchairs if the footstool is close enough to give her a foothold -- up the stairs in a moment -- or her favorite game: up and over me, Lizzie, or her daddy. We've decided the best description for Alice is "scrappy." She's rough and tumble, smiles all the way.

Perhaps most exciting have been Alice's recent forays into language. No clear words yet, but her signing is clearly intentional. She has "all done", "hello", "bye bye" and "milk", but they all look basically the same: one or two hands in the ASL "milk" hand squeezing gesture. She knows exactly what she's doing -- if I say "Alice, would you like some milk?" she immediately smiles and signs "milk." And if I say "bye bye," she'll sign right back. Alice loves copycat, too -- "Arms up" is a favorite family game, and Alice has even started clapping when we clap for her. Very endearing. And while Alice has yet to use any spoken words, her babble is pretty impressive. She makes all sorts of syllables, coos, and giggles with a conversational cadence. Again, very cute.

I think it's safe to say Alice is thriving. :)