And now for four minutes of my daughter eating avocado:
That was on the 14th, just shy of six months old. Since then she’s started driving and is up for another Nobel Prize. Wait… sorry, getting ahead of myself. Since then she’s tried banana (yes), cantaloupe (yes), and lemon (yeeg! no, wait, more. yeeg! no no, just a bit more.) She’s also a big fan of sharing Mum’s water from her glass. She can fit her entire face in the glass, and she doesn’t swallow much, but it sure is the most fun ever.
A tooth! There’s a tooth poking out of her face! Right there in her mouth parts! I would say that explains the drool, but the actual quantity of drool seems consistent. Perhaps her Sophie the Giraffe has been receiving even more vigorous gnawing of late. Avery’s range of sounds is also increasing quite rapidly. Any relation? Does a bit of a tooth suddenly give you consonants? Now I’m imagining all the old toothless people I’ve seen trying to speak coherently, and I wonder…
We think the swing may be losing its mojo. She still thoroughly enjoys it, don’t misunderstand, but it’s not the magic bullet of nap times that it used to be. She’ll nod off sometimes, but more often these days it’s a fun distraction for a few minutes until she realizes we’re trying to distract her. She’s wily, that one. So we may let the swing go to its next home, and replace it with a table. You know, one of those things where a family gathers to eat and converse and be a family. Yes, Marjorie is leading that charge. Not that I object.
So if the swing has lost its… swing… then what’s the new trick? Brace yourself. This is a wild one. The Floor. Yes. Behold its mysterious power. Avery can now (only just now, actually. Like, yesterday now.) sit up on her own for pretty much as long as she likes. We’ve got a nice rug big enough for her to topple safely in any direction, so we chuck down a few cushions with a handful of toys in varying degrees of in reachedness, and she’s good. She can’t go from flopped to unflopped yet, but if we start her sitting up, she might be perfectly content to sit for five minutes before carefully toppling down on to her belly – and maybe even taking a little nap! Glorious! Actual observable self-entertainment for whole minutes on end, followed by the elusive catnap! You can’t help watching her be all independent, and then you shake yourself when you realize you’ve got upwards of five, ten, maybe even fifteen minutes to Do Something. Like eat with two hands. Precious luxury.
Pictures! Note the excruciating adorableness of Avery in her new sun hat.
Katie and Colin are in town! This is Katie’s first time. Marjorie knew she would love it, and her reaction reminds me of mine. Wide eyed and drinking in the energy and knowing that this is where you want to be. Sucked me right in. We’ll see if we’re calling them neighbours in a year.
So they’ve been touristing and we’ve seen a bit of Central Park with them, such as the Lewis Carroll sculpture. I had managed to miss that on previous excursions, so that was nice. Central Park is big, yo. It’s easy to miss stuff. Though interestingly, Stanley Park is more than 10% bigger. Yeah. A little trivia for you there.
While both Katie and Colin have enjoyed some Avery time, it has to be said that Avery and Katie seem to be fast friends. Almost inseparable, even. Very fun to see. Katie even came over this evening to babysit while Mum and Dad went on a date. Yes, you read correctly. A real date at a real restaurant. A nice one! Marjorie wore pearls and lipstick. I wore a tie with hardly any irony. We were giddy! Thank you, Katie, so very much for that. We had a top shelf great time. I suspect you had a pretty good time as well.
In other news, Chaos has pretty much wrapped the post on The New Me. We’re tinkering with the web site, then we’ll post the video and I’ll be able to share it with you. Please let me know what you think. PSA: when you watch, sit on a towel so you don’t wet the couch.
In case I don’t post for a few days, I’ll say it here: Happy birthday, Robyn! I love and admire you, dear sister. I hope your day is shiny.