Skip to main content

Willow has grown since that big kiss

A while back, I shared with you details about Willow's first kiss (which came from a diabolical tot named Max). A lot has happened since that kiss; Willow has grown by leaps and bounds.
Witness:
  • Her top two teeth have started coming in (and with it an annoying clicking sound Willow likes to show off).
  • Willow has started walking. She's inconsistent with it and still chooses the much speedier crawling to walking, but I've seen her walk from the kitchen to the love seat in the living room, which is more than 20 feet.
  • She plays much more with toys than she used to (and she leaves bigger messes).
  • She likes to take things out and put things in (cabinets, boxes).
  • She smiles, laughs, giggles and points all the time.
  • She takes most her formula in sippy cups now.
  • She eats almost everything Mommy and Daddy eats.
  • Her vocabulary has grown. She can say "Da-da," "Daddy," "Ma-ma," "Mom," "touchdown" (story below), "that" (pronounced "DAH!") and "bye" (she told Mommy "BYE!" triumphantly and clearly this morning). I've also heard her say "Pop," "puppy," "dog" and "duck," but only a time or two. I think she can say "bottle" too, but it's not at all clear.
  • Her sign language vocabulary has grown too. She can sign for milk, food and "more" (just started this morning). She's learning signs for "all done" and "all gone."
  • She also can point if she wants something and shake her head if that's not what she wants (she gives you an affirming smile if that's what she wants).
  • She can wave "bye" and "hello."
  • I think she's created signs of her own, but I'm not sure what they mean (such as a military-style wave of the arm and the snap of her fingers).
  • She loves to pucker up and kiss things (usually with an open mouth). She prefers kissing her stuffed animals and "babies" over kissing yucky grown-ups.
  • She's started to figure out how to turn things on and off and to trigger a toy's sounds (she even learned to make one of her babies laugh, and Mommy and Daddy didn't know how to).

'Touchdown'

Willow's Pop, aka Cherish's dad, has been signaling and saying "TOUCHDOWN" since she was just a wee pup. Willow loves this and usually returns the gesture along with a big smile or laugh.
This weekend, she started saying the word too.
The word usually comes out like this: "TOUCH ... dow!" in her mousy voice. Sometimes it's just a squeak; other times it's a clear yelp.
Every time it brings a smile to your face.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

With baby comes packing (and a lot of it)

Willow, Che and I are traveling to see the grandparents, aunts, cousins and Mos (or is it Moes or is it Mo's or is it Moses?) in Henderson, Tenn., this weekend. And that brings up one of the big differences between being a couple without kids and being a couple with kids: packing for travel (they even have an app for that, God bless us packing-weary parents). Back in my pre-child days, packing hardly mattered, probably taking up 1 zillionth of a tenth of a percent of my brain capacity to do (six days equals six days of socks and underwear plus some T-shirts, some shorts, a pair or two of pants, put on some shoes, throw in some toothpaste, and I was off). That's hardly the case anymore. Take, for example, if you have a spit-up-prone baby. Do you take two burp clothes, four, eight or, maybe, 16? Better take 24. And how many diapers do you take? Or wipes? Do I need to take baby medicine? Is it going to be cold or warm or cold and warm or warm and hot then ... AACK!!! You get t...
2 comments
Read more

Willow's morning of play, play, play exhausts poor, old Dad

Willow's playtime universe continues to grow. Rapidly. Witness. In the midsummer heat, I take Willow out to our shaded backyard in the morning to play. And play she does. She climbed into her swing first. After I pushed her for a while, I got her out of the swing and put her in her wagon so she could help me convey bags of sand from the garage to the backyard to fill her sandbox (part of her new swing set) and her water table sandbox. She took rake and shovel and played in the sandbox for a bit. Then she waddled over to the deck and started to climb the steps to get to the water table. She played in the sand a bit, but most of her time was used dipping water up and out of the water part of the water table. Most the water ended up all over her. After that she wanted off the deck to go back to swinging. Instead I retrieved the new tricycle Cherish procured from a Franklin recycle center and cleaned it up. Willow loved the trike, holding on to the handle bars while I pushed her...
Post a Comment
Read more

Willow's tooth-brushing goes from rocky to rocking

Willow has been giving us fits for months now about brushing her teeth before bed. She's usually better brushing her teeth in the morning, meaning it's less like wrestling an alligator for me, but at night before bed, she turns into the Tasmanian Devil. We've tried making the tooth-brushing as fun as possible for her, but I usually end up holding her against her will while I try, mostly in vain, to pry the toothbrush into her clamped-shut mouth. Sometimes we give up. We've tried singing to her. Dancing. Story-telling. Tickling. Nothing has really worked. But Mommy might have hit on the solution. A singing toothbrush. Yesterday Mommy brought home a toothbrush that belts out Queen singing "We Will Rock You." This toothbrush ROCKS! And Willow loves it. We tried it out last night, and on the inaugural brushing, Willow brushed her teeth successfully all by herself. She danced the whole time too. And I stayed bruise free (I also, surprisingly, had more energ...
Post a Comment
Read more