Listen to the Rain

After the highs of the eight month baby update and the lows of the nine month baby update, I'm happy to come back with good news again!

We spent yesterday and this morning at my parents' house, partially so sashagee would be able to go to her parents' house to water their flowers, but mostly so my parents could get a lot of Laila time in without any other tasks interfering, like the painting they've been doing the last few times they've come over or installing the baby gate (still on hold since it's not easily reversible). They even got extra time because we dropped her off with them when we first arrived and used some money they had given us for Valentine's Day to go out to dinner at a local restaurant that, by coincidence, my parents had themselves gone to on Thursday night. It's called "Oak + Swine," but they had brisket on the menu so that's what I got (sashagee got pulled pork, because it's not like I'm going to make it at home).

In further tangentially-related baby news, we finally got all our forms of address sorted out--I'm אבא (abba, "dad") and sashagee is mamá, my father is pápa--as I called my grandfather and my father called his grandfather before me--and my mother is nana.

Back to the baby, Laila is crawling! She's not quite at the level of zooming around but she's beyond the initial tentative steps she was taking last month. After her medication made her a silent baby (except for the 'roid rage roaring), she's speedrun the babbling gamut and is now back to where she should be--including saying "nom nom nom" when she's eating to remind herself to chew. Just today, when I went in to wake her up from her morning nap she was sitting in her crib and clicking her tongue over and over again. I wonder if she'll be disappointed that English (or Japanese, or Hebrew, or French) doesn't have any click consonants. I did it back to her a bit, but I'm not sure she really took it to heart.

And in other news, she's trying to stand up!


I haven't managed to get a picture of it, but she's made it even further to this, to up on one knee. For over a minute at a time. She's getting ready to start running everywhere and giving sashagee some real exercise!