Smart Baby

Grampie took us to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle to celebrate my birthday and Mom's birthday together. He helped me ride on a big pretend slug! We saw "Lucy" the fossil and I had fun playing the in Baby Zone. The other kids didn't really like me knocking down their block towers. My favorite part was the water table.
Mom and Dad are really amazed at all of the things I can do now! I say "dada" often, but it has many meanings...Dad, doggie, feed me, I'm mad, and just about anything else that I try to vocalize. When anyone asks me to say "mama", I giggle and say "dada" like it's a game. I understand lots of words though, and now know that objects have names. Mom likes to "quiz" me by asking me where the ball, tiger, baby, balloon, doggie, etc is...I love to point to stuff, sometimes with both hands! Today she wanted me to point to my stuffed monkey, but I outsmarted her and pointed to the giant inflatable monkey instead! I am getting good at putting my balls and blocks into the proper holes in my toys and can stack the rings on the pole. I fill up my shopping cart with dish towels that I steal off the oven and push them around the kitchen. Sometimes I put them on the doggie's head because I wish he would play peek-a-boo with me. I can sign "more", "eat", and "all done" with my hands...the better the treat (spaghetti-o's), the better I sign. Mom had to move the cookbook shelf today because I've made it my mission to rip all of the pages out of her books when she's not looking. And boy, am I fast!! I still like to put most things in my mouth, but I'm also finding that it's fun to collect stuff now too. Today I collected the seed pods off the deck and walked them over to the storage box, one by one. Once I'd made a little pile, I walked them back over to the doggie and fed them to him. Mom thinks it's neat that I make up new ways to play with my old toys often. I'm very independent (unless my tummy's hungry for milk) and like to explore on my own (and destroy neatly folded piles of clothes in stores). Mom just had to buy a leash for me!

Here's one of the deer that we spotted in the backyard last week...