Save Us From a Word Explosion and Fondness for the Stairs

I was trying to come up with a list of words or word-sounds that Brigid makes yesterday and was having a hard time listing them all because all of the sudden, she's just saying words. She seems to enjoy words that have a ook or uk or ack sound at the end because she really emphasizes that, like book and snack, and Shrek. But she also says back for bath. But the list is now growing at such a rapid rate, it's almost impossible to keep up with it. I also want to get her on tape, either cassette or video, because her voice when saying these things is so darn cute.

She can say her sisters' names, although we're probably the only ones who recognize it as such. It's so cute to see her stand at the hallway door with the gate across, calling up to Ma-get and Pa-tet (or something like that).

Yesterday when I got home from work she seemed very interested in boob, getting upset when I said I had to change out of my inaccessible dress before she could have some Mah mah mah. She has shown no desire to give it up, which is OK with me. But she'll get very frustrated when I can't accommodate her immediately. Now that she's better able to express herself, I'm waiting for the day she says, "More boob!" or "Want boob now!"

Before going in the house yesterday after getting home, we ran around the back yard. She twirled and spun around, splaying herself down in the grass and the leaves on her back, then rolling around before getting up and running to the Little Tykes slide we have. She can climb up the three short steps to the (very) small slide and come down by herself, something she is very and obviously proud of. Then we ran to the climbing tree and I helped her into the first "V" of the tree. She wanted to go further, but I couldn't get up there in my dress, nor did I want to have her jerk herself out of my arms and come tumbling to the ground. So we just got back into the grass and ran around some more before she decided it was time for Mah mah mah.

She was very excited to take her bath last night because bath time means she gets to climb up the "stais" (her word for stairs). I go behind her making sure she doesn't take a tumble, and in the few months we've been doing this, she's been getting stronger and stronger and more capable, which, of course, worries me because if she ever does get down the hallway by herself, she'll scramble up those stairs and possibly tumble down as well. I don't remember if I included this in a previous blog where I discussed her well-child visit, but she's almost 32 inches tall (and almost 24 pounds). Although she was a peanut beside her new friend, Adina, who is six months older, she seems so big to me now. Just carrying her around on my hip makes me thing the doctor's scale was on the fritz because she feels a whole lot heavier than 24 pounds.

Tonight, Jack and I are going over to Burlington to meet my college buddy, Kathleen, and her husband, Dan, for dinner. Our friend, Kim, is coming over to be with the girls. If we were dining out in Plattsburgh, I'd not have a problem with leaving the baby with Patricia and Margaret because we'd be within easy distance if anything did go wrong. But being over in Vermont, that's just too far away to leave the girls to their own devices with the baby. It will be nice to see Kathleen, who's visiting her dad from their home in California. And Jack has never met Dan. We'll see how Kim fares with a pre-bed-time Brigid, but Margaret and Patricia will be there to lend a hand.

As promised, here are some bonus photos. I've also added one of the girls and our friends, the Weinsteins', daughter, Adina, to the blog from their visit.

I call this first one, Angry Devil Eyes.
The ones of her in a diaper were just after a bath and she was running around with a mirror. The last one is what we call Dirty Face, taken at the lake after dinner one night.