Geek Habitat

Reposted from my geekgal.vox.com account, which you really ought to join (it’s free!) if you want to keep up with Sara updates; like our decision to put most Sara photos behind Flickr’s “friends & family” security, vox.com lets me do the same on a per-blog entry, per-photo basis.

She said “Hi, Momma” (I had just said it, so she was mimicking me, but still… Awwwwwww!) It’s not the first time she’s said it, but it was just cute in the context of her sitting there “reading” her book.

She is not yet walking, but she can stand up and balance for nearly a minute even when she’s flailing her arms or “bopping” to music (which she loves–we need to buy her more musical toys!) She doesn’t need any help getting to a standing position or picking up objects she’s dropped while standing, and she’s starting to get the hang of a single step up/down in my folks’ house, although without baby gates installed at our house I’ve not yet introduced her to our stairs at all.

Her vocabulary, that we recognize so far anyway, includes: Mom (Mom, Momma, Ma, MomMomMo…); Dad (Da, Dada, Pa, and most recently, PaPa); cat (which usually comes out as “dat” or “datdat” or “keykat” said really quickly and followed by a happy shrieking yell, which sends all cats within a two-mile radius fleeing for cover); dog (we don’t have many dogs around, nice ones anyway, but she has said “deeee” when I say “doggy” about a toy or doggy in a book); and “Hello” (though this one is the least frequent of all; usually she just waves, vs. verbalizing it.)

There are of course many words she cannot say yet that she understands, like “more?” If you ask her, “Where is your table?” or “Where is the cat/kitty cat?” she will scan her environs, and if she’s able she will head on over (crawling) to the table or nearest cat. She also will come to me sometimes when I ask her to “Come to Momma.”

She’s gotten really cuddly this past week, although she’s also gotten more quick to cry. I suspect more teething (evidenced by redder cheeks, more drooling and more hand and toy munching than usual), but perhaps also just a new stage in her development/expression.