Dah-dee

We've been working on getting Angela to say da-da or ma-ma, and aside from one time saying a very distinct "da" she hasn't done much on this front. Until today during one of our seemlingly unproductive sessions of saying dada and mama and pointing or patting the appropriate person, that Angela put out a "dah-dee," at which point we both looked at each other saying "did she just say daddy?" The verdict is still out, but we definitely heard something we hadn't before. Despite the language barrier, Angela still has her way of getting her point across. Specifically in regard to identifying who she wants holding her. In order of preferred people: #1. Mommy    #2. Grandma    #3. MacKenzie (Andrew's gf)    #4. Daddy. Everyone else she decides after she meets them and is able to assess them for herself. Females are most definitely preferred over males, the males she likes to smile at and maybe reach out to touch them, but generally she doesn't want them holding her. She'll even pick a random woman in public over daddy - and luckily daddy is ok with this. If someone she doesn't want to  be held by tries to reach and hold her, she'll turn her head and look in the opposite direction for a little bit as if to say "sorry, I can't see you so I'm technically not rejecting you, but really I am."

Many times while she's crawling all over the house and about to get into something she shouldn't, I'll say something to the effect of "Angela don't do that," and you can see that she senses my tone as she pauses, looks at me for a little bit and then goes right back to what she was doing. The best part though is that we can say "Angela come here" with our hands out and she crawls right to us with great enthusiasm (that is, unless she finds something else more interesting - aka something she shouldn't be doing/playing with). My my favorite mannerism is something she's been doing for a long time now - you make a funny face or do something weird to entertain her and rather than smile at you or stare, she actually raises one of her eyebrows as if you say "you're off your rocker, mom." The closest picture I have to this look is this: which was taken when she was two months old.

In other news, Angela is doing very well with standing and practicing walking. She can tool around the house in her walker and can stand and hold on to something with only one hand. Cruising seems to be coming up soon. Clapping hasn't happened yet but she's very close to doing that as well. She hasn't perfected her wave but she will throw her hand back and forth from time to time when we're practicing bye-bye in the mirror or even to someone else. Now that she's become much better with her dexterity, she will also use this new found ability with her fingers, to take her pointer finger and play with our lower lip so that it makes a 'blup blup blup" sound - this is entertaining except for when she's past-due for a nail trimming and then it actually kind of hurts. I am still breastfeeding multiple times per day which is fine, aside from the face slapping, scratching, kicking, and hair pulling that goes along with it. Her favorite nursing position though is to grabs her foot and bring it up to her forehead. Hmm, whatever rocks your boat, little lady.