Like my wife put it the other day, Madame is right on the verge. There were some huge developments this past month, but they aren't complete yet. It seems like every month I'm so amazed at the new stuff she's learning and doing, and I wonder if I'll feel this way until she moves out of the house. Probably.
- Walking. This is (obviously) the big one. The crazy thing is, she got really good at standing, and then one day she took 4 or 5 steps. Every day after that she's been taking more steps, and now she can walk for fairly long distances. Crawling is still more efficient for her, but that balance is going to tip soon. We've been experimenting with shoes for her too, but she absolutely hates them. They're like cement on her feet, and she'll stand and give you this look like, "what the hell are you doing to me?"
- Teeth, teeth and more teeth. This past month it seemed like all the rest of her teeth started coming in all at once. Her teething must be painful, but she's been a pretty good sport about it actually. Every now and then she'll grab her cheeks and give me the crinkle (a look like "um, this is really uncomfortable"), but she doesn't freak out. And I've lost count at how many there are.
- Talking. My little chatterbox is never at a loss for something to say, but she just hasn't quite figured out the words yet. And the older she gets the more frustrated she seems to get at the fact that we can't quite understand her. I thought about doing some of that baby sign language stuff with her (I never saw how useful it would be until recently), but I'm still not convinced. We're getting by fairly well with pointing, which is kind of like sign language, right?
- The pickle lip. Before this past month there was really only one way for her to show displeasure - crying. But now she saves crying for the really upsetting stuff, and when she's just generally unhappy (like when I take something away from her or tell her not to climb up the stairs) she gives me the pickle lip. Where she learned to stick her lips out and give a sour-puss like that I'll never know. Maybe it's genetic, because my wife says her grandma used to give the exact same expression when she was annoyed. Either way it usually just makes me laugh, which is the wrong reaction when she's doing something I don't want her to.