Fish for Breakfast: "Regular" life (catch-up at 21 months)

So, we've had a little excitement in our lives (a visit from Bubbe Brenda, a solo trip for me to Atlanta to see Miso), but, rather than write about that, I want to just do a little catch-up post about Natalie and our lives. You know, since this has, effectively, become our digital baby book.

So, Natalie remains sweet and wonderful and darling and we adore her. Before our trip to Hawaii, she started on a real streak of progressively earlier wake-ups. Upon returning from Hawaii, we tried to just shift her to, like, mountain time. So her new bedtime is an hour later than before, and she sleeps - on average - about 25 minutes later. So, um, yeah. At least we've learned to really appreciate those 25 minutes.

When we go into pick her up, she always two things: immediately demands the other parent, and points to either the cat or the dog on her alphabet wall hanging and announces its name. Okay, occasionally, she also points to the zebra and calls that either kitty or doggy, but, well, at least we're in the quadraped universe.

Although she doesn't yet know zebra, her animal vocabulary is improving. She can identify bears and bunnies (although context is key there, as those sound a lot alike). She knows and loves birds - and will even identify them upon just hearing their chirping. She knows cows and will moo if you ask her what cows say. Today I think I caught her saying "fish". She loves animals; I don't think she's really realized that people can actually have dogs or cats that live in their homes. The thought would, like, blow her mind.

One super-cute thing she does when she sees something she likes is to wave "hi" (the wave is more like a sideways opening and closing of her hand [kept close to her stomach] than a sort of parade/greeting wave that others would describe as a wave), say "hi-eeeeee" to the object in question, and then lean in to kiss it, while making the "mmmmmm" sound. Adorable, no? Sometimes she'll kiss us, but this routine is usually reserved for, say, kitties in books or her favorite toys.

And what are her favorite toys? Well, tote bags, of course.

And hats. The girl loves accessories.

Also, we found a golf ball a few weeks back on a walk around the neighborhood. And then we found another. And then we found a sort of squishy, floaty ball in Hawaii. These are, literally, her favorite toys at the moment. We didn't take the golf balls to Hawaii (coals to Newcastle, anyone?), but the morning after our return, she found the golf ball in the living room and happily greeted it and waved to it.

I've been taking Natalie to an informal weekly stroller workout. Most of the time, she's awake and alert.

Sometimes not.

I have no clue what will happen come summer, but it's been pushing 95 degrees here some days, so I'm sensing that my stroller striding days may be taking a seasonal vacation.

Natalie's been eating more foods. Her use of the spoon and fork is sporadic, but we're getting there. In addition to all the new fruit she tried in Hawaii, she's been sampling dates, matzah, dried cherries, crackers, and, uh, other stuff we can't recall. This is all in addition to her new favorite food, cheese. In fact, she's been known to request a cheese course at the conclusion of each meal. We also think she's developing words for water ("wa") and milk ("melh").

In the words department, a big word she's been using lately is her own name! She calls herself "Nani". In fact, today I took a picture of her, and then she rushed over to me and wanted to see the picture displayed on the screen on the back of the camera. When I showed it her, she pointed to the picture and said, "Nani, Nani." Too cute!

She hates having her hair washed. So much so that sometimes she'll even try to climb out of the tub. Unrelated to her bathing woes, though, she loves water. I picked up this water table at Costco, and I'm hoping that we'll get a lot of use out of it this summer! (We've since moved it outside, leaving the xylophone and yoga ball inside....).

Since it's spring in Texas, it's also time for the annual bluebonnet pictures. Just to set to the stage, here's last year:

And this year:

Although our part of Texas is rather devoid of scenic beauty, this is the one time of year when it's really very beautiful here - suddenly everything is green, and there are wildflowers everywhere.