A Journey of a Thousand Miles...

Begins with a single step.  Which means that Babykins is on her way!  On Saturday, as Hubbykins and I perused the brochures at the Victoria Visitor's Center, Babykins was preparing to reach another milestone.  Instead of holding her hand to help her walk around the center, I put my hand under her arm.  As she motored along, seemingly without leaning on me, I removed my hand and Babykins continued on another step by herself!

Hubbykins and I clapped and cheered, thrilled to see Babykins' first step.

For the next 2 days, Babykins refused to take a step unless she was firmly holding on to a hand.  Then yesterday morning, Babykins turned into a crying, clinging meltdown.  I spent most of the morning carrying her around our apartment, then went to playgroup and put her down for a nap.

Babykins woke up cheerful and ready to play.  An hour later, she was standing next to the TV stand eyeing up her musical toy.  The next thing I knew, she had taken 3 steps and was calmly playing with her toy!!!  Since then, Hubbyins and I have taped multiple sessions of Babykins walking, and our little girl is now able to walk across the room by herself.

It's both very exciting and a little sad.  Babykins is growing up, and soon she'll be running off without our help.  For now, though, we're still happy to lend a hand whenever she'll let us.

Charmed

We've been in Canada recently, hence the lack of blog posts.  Just because we weren't writing about it, though, doesn't mean Babykins didn't have quite the adventure!

One of Babykins' favorite things about traveling is making new friends.  She likes to wander the plane/train/boat/restaurant/store smiling at people and, more recently, reaching out to them to see if they'll come to her.  Babykins currently has a 99.9% "smile back" rate, and as far as she's concerned, the people who don't smile back are stinky, anyway.

Perhaps her most successful outreach of the trip occurred at our hotel in Vancouver.  While trying to plan our day, Babykins started to flirt with the concierge.  She gave her a smile, then a wave.  After a few minutes of playing shy, Babykins reached out to the concierge and held her finger.  This led to the concierge asking to hold Babykins, and shortly they were taking a stroll through the gift shop while Hubbykins and I looked at brochures.  A minute later they returned with Babykins proudly clutching a new stuffed animal.

Hubbykins and I looked at the stuffed animal, looked at each other, and promptly offered to either return or pay for the toy.  The concierge waved us off, saying it was a present, and sent us on our way.  Babykins had once again worked her magic.

I Don't Want To, You Can't Make Me

Despite being only 11 months old, Babykins has definite opinions.  One of the things she often has an opinion about is going to sleep.  If she's ready for bed, she'll be out in seconds, lying limply in my arms as her pacifier falls out of her mouth.  If she's decided that staying up would be more fun, though, Babykins has a large arsenal of tricks to keep herself awake.

If going to bed were a chess match, it would go something like this:

Enter room, get comfy on bed.  Babykins refuses to nurse.
Mommykins knows she's in trouble, but foolishly remains optimistic.
Babykins shakes head back and forth.
Mommykins counters by stroking Babykins' forehead.  Watch out, Pawn, you're in trouble now!
Babykins grabs Mommykins' hand and, with a strength that no baby should have, holds it still.  Mommykins' Knight leaves the board.
Mommykins retaliates by singing, very quietly and soothingly, her full repertoire of Disney songs.  Take that, Rook!
Babykins slowly closes her eyes to lull Mommykins into a false sense of security, then with a great heave rolls off Mommykins' lap.  Goodbye, Bishop.
But Mommykins isn't out of the game yet.  She pulls out the big guns, gently rubbing Babykins' back where she lies on the bed.
Babykins can't be stopped.  She counters by rolling across the bed, with complete disregard for the edges of the mattress.  She's stalking Mommykins' Queen with finesse.
Mommykins dips into her bag of tricks and once again tries nursing Babykins.  Babykins' eyes begin to close and her breathing slows.  Check!!
But just when Mommykins thinks she's won, Babykins slowly reaches up her hand, pops her pacifier out of her mouth, throws it across the room with all her might, and looks up at Mommykins with a mischievous grin.  Check and Mate!

At which point Mommykins graciously admits defeat and returns Babykins to the living room and her toys.  You may have won today, Babykins, but we will meet again.

Babykins' First...Tsunami!

Thursday night after Babykins had gone to sleep, Hubbykins and I were watching TV when a weather warning scrolled across the bottom.  Being from the Northeast, these scrolls typically warn of strong storms, impending blizzards, or flash floods.  We were a little surprised when this one announced a...tsunami!

After studying the flood maps and discovering that our building is part of the tsunami evacuation zone (!), we began packing up in case we had to leave in a hurry.  Using her Extra Sensory Baby Perception, Babykins knew we were in the midst of something big and woke up crying.  After unsuccessfully trying to put her back to sleep, I brought Babykins out to the living room, where we were in the process of trying to decide exactly how many granola bars constituted a week's worth of non-perishable food.

While we kept an anxious eye on the news, Babykins played in our suitcase.  When we lugged clothing, first aid supplies, and extra batteries down to the car, Babykins rode in her carrier, delighting in the fact that she was going on an adventure in the middle of the night.  And three hours later, as the tsunami alarms blared in the street, Babykins slept peacefully in our bed, content that she had been part of something big .

3 AM came and went with no damage on our part of the island.  Hubbykins and I breathed a sigh of relief, and Babykins earned the right to one day tell everyone about how she made it through the Hawaiian Tsunami of 2011.

Baby See, Baby Do

In a flash of brilliance, Babykins has suddenly become an excellent mimic!  In the past two weeks, she has started to copy the grownups around her, leading me to be both very excited and much more cautious about the things we say and do.

It started last week when Grandmakins touched her nose, then touched Babykins' nose.  Babykins repeated the actions (although her "nose" can apparently be found almost anywhere between her eye and her chin).  Then this weekend, I picked up Babykins' toy phone, made it ring, and held it out to Babykins, saying kitty wanted to talk to her.  Normally, Babykins thinks this is just a game of pass the phone back and forth.  This time, though, she took the phone, pushed the buttons, held it up to her ear, and said, "Olo, olo."  I thought it was just a fluke, but later in the day as I washed dishes, Babykins sat happily in the living room making the phone ring, putting it to her ear, and saying, "Olo, olo!"

These were both very exciting accomplishments, but the best moment came this morning.  Hubbykins was leaving for work and blew Babykins a kiss as he opened the door to leave.  Suddenly, we hear Babykins give a big "smack" with her lips.  She had blown Hubbykins a kiss in return!  We both squealed in excitement (is there a more manly word for squealing?).  I can't wait to see what Babykins learns to do next.

Mwah!

Two months ago, we were having lunch with friends who have a 1-year-old and the mom said to the little girl, "Give me a kiss."  She leaned over and the baby gave her a big kiss on the cheek.  I was so jealous!

A few weeks later, as we were reading a bedtime story, Babykins leaned over and put her face to the book.  I wasn't sure what she was doing, but every time we read that book (which has a picture of a little girl with blonde curls) Babykins would lean in and put her face on the girl.  I finally realized she was giving the little girl kisses!  Over the next few days, Babykins started kissing more and more of the characters in her books (although she wasn't indiscriminate - some characters were apparently not worthy of her cute baby kisses). 

Finally, about 2 weeks ago, Babykins crawled over to where I was lying on the floor, put her head right above mine, opened her mouth wide, and planted a big, gooey kiss on my cheek.  It was fabulous!  I laughed and clapped, which of course made Babykins want to do it again.  By the end of our kissing session, my face was covered in drool, but it was the most wonderful drool ever.

Then yesterday, I was sitting next to Babykins on the floor and I pointed to my cheek, saying, "Give Mama a kiss."  Babykins smiled, leaned over, and planed a big, sloppy baby kiss on my cheek!  After a week of colds and teething, this was such an unexpected surprise that it quickly became my new favorite game.  Babykins tired of it after a few times and crawled off, but I kept the warm glow for the rest of the day.

Not a Tooth

A week ago, Babykins came down with a runny nose.  This was followed by a cough, an inability to sleep, and severe grumpiness.  These were the same symptoms she had with her last two colds, so we gave her a few doses of Tylenol, a lot of cuddles, and waited it out.

Within a couple days, however, we discovered that this time it was different...Babykins had a tooth!  After falsely announcing Babykins' first tooth twice before, though, I was hesitant to announce this one.  Even after Hubbykins and I could both see and feel the tooth (in case you weren't sure, sticking your finger into the mouth of a baby with a new tooth will promptly result in getting bitten), I still didn't want to say anything.  What if this ended up being a false alarm, too?  What if the tooth somehow went back into her gums?  I could never live down a third tooth fiasco.

And I'm glad I waited, because it turns out Babykins wasn't getting a tooth.  She was getting teeth!  Yesterday, she flashed me a big smile and to my surprise, both of her bottom front teeth were through!  Because I'm sleep deprived, I forgot my own warning and promptly stuck my finger in her mouth...at which point she bit me with TWO teeth!

We've waited months for Babykins to get her first tooth, and Hubbykins and I are very excited.  We're also a bit sad, though.  As much as we enjoy watching Babykins' new found zest for chewing food, we'll miss that sweet, toothless grin.

Houdinikins

The lack of blogs lately hasn't been because Babykins isn't busy.  Rather, it's because she's been so busy there hasn't been a moment to write.  In one of her scariest developments yet, Babykins has gone Houdini on me, somehow figuring out how to wiggle out of her stroller straps.

She first managed this feat early this week when I buckled her into her stroller, then realized I needed to grab a few more items before we could leave.  I went into the living room for a minute, and when I got back to the front door, Babykins had twisted around and had both legs out of the straps!  After sprouting another gray hair, I sat her down and buckled her back in.

I noticed Babykins was increasingly struggling with her straps, but didn't really think too much about it until this afternoon.  We were in the grocery store, and I stopped for a minute to check out the tofu selection (ok, I was staring at the cookies).  In less than a minute, Babykins had wiggled out of her straps, twisted around to face the back of the stroller, stood up, and started climbing up the back of her seat.  I grabbed her right as the stroller started to tip backwards and tried to sit her back down.  At which point she locked her legs and started to cry, leaving me with every parent's dreaded dilemma...do I just pick her up and carry her, reinforcing bad behavior, or do I put her back in the seat and strap her in, knowing she'll scream and cry for the rest of the shopping trip?

I folded, of course, and carried Babykins home with our groceries riding in the stroller (they, at least, stayed quietly seated for the entire trip).  Tomorrow I'll have to break out the shoulder straps and begin buckling Babykins in with the full 5-point harness.  I have a feeling she'll object.