Go, Sophie, Go!!

Our baby girl continues to develop on a daily basis; Doug and I are blown away by how much and by how quickly she changes. While Sophie has mastered the art of crawling, she appears to see only 2 benefits of crawling. First, it allows her to chase the cat (poor, Louie...). Secondly, crawling allows her to move to a place where she can stand up. All she wants to do these days is stand up--in her crib, along the window seat, by her box of toys. She spent nearly 10 minutes figuring out how she could stand up and prop herself up on the hallway wall without any railings or ledges. Everytime she successfuly stands up, she gets a huge grin and turns her head to us to make sure we see her. Then she squeals with pride and slaps her hands on the surface. She will stand up and then spend minutes and minutes squatting and standing, squatting and standing. Perhaps she will have Doug's thighs...uh, oh.

In other news, she continues to clap and wave at everybody, at every door, at every animal. At the beach this week, she sat in the sand and waved at every little kid who ran or swam by. It was actually pitiful, because nobody waved back and at one point, she looked up at me and raised her eyebrows as if to ask, "why won't these kids be friends with me?" She flirts with waitresses, grocery store clerks, or people we pass on the sidewalk; she flashes her smile, grunts or squeals, and claps those hands together with excitement. We've taken field trips this week to the beach, to the zoo, and to the aquarium, and Sophie has been extremely engaging and gregarious.

She will follow our hands when we point to something. Her "vocabulary" is increasing, too and we are hearing new consonant combinations. She says dada and momma sounds but never excusively to us, so we can't count those as her first official words. Her sounds toward Louie (the cat) are the most consistent. I click my tongue on the roof of my mouth to call the "meow meow cat." She has started to imitate that sound and does it whenever Louie enters the room. If I say "where is the meow meow cat", she turns her head and begins to crawl toward his sleeping spot. It's adorable until she pulls his tail. Her top two teeth have descended further, so she grinds those top and bottom teeth together to make another new sound.

I had to document all these details because they make us laugh every day. We cannot believe we have an 8 and a half month old already. She's growing up so fast!