Splish, splash...

Last night, I got a phone call at work.
"Guess what your daughter did."
What's that?
"She said bath."
Wow.
I stopped to impart the news to my co-workers. "She said bath!"
As we've noted before, Sofia likes bathtime. Really likes it. Enjoys splashing and playing with floating toys. Wants to stay in her little tub and play, even if she's visibly cold. Occasionally cries when taken out of the water.
So last night, upon being brought to her tub, she said "bath." And proceeded to say it over and over again. We didn't drill her on the word; she learned it from context and knows what it is. And it sounds distinct from the other B-words she tries to use -- bear, book and just plain ba ba ba ba ba.
I can't wait to see this for myself.
When bathtime is over, mom's sweatshirt is wet and the kitchen table is soaked. This is of no consequence to us.
Someone's going to be getting swimming lessons....
I think about this and the fact that she is getting to demand feeding herself and moving from sitting to crawling position. It amazes and dumbfounds me.
This is the fun stuff: watching her learn and explore her world.
This is the scary stuff: she's learning so fast I wonder how we're ever going to keep up.

Shake your groove thang: Sofia and I have been dancing since she came home from the hospital. Except now, she dances to her own steps. Really.
Sitting at the computer, I hold her under the arms and stand her up, and she moves her feet up and down, moves her body, grins and every so often give me a happy squeal.
This also tuckers her out near naptime - so let the music play!
When it comes to her requests from the house DJ, Sofia is partial to the O'Jays and ABBA. I wonder: Is exposing your child to too much disco grounds for state social agency intervention? (Don't worry grandma, she's getting lots of Bach, too!)

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

The holidays were great for our girl!

She got lots of neat loot, of course. Peek-a-blocks - complete with block-eating hippopotamus, which I think is the accessory that no home should be without. A spinning top which she is starting to enjoy nearly as much as her dad, who pretends he's delivering the lottery numbers with each spin. And tons of toys for her favorite time of the day that doesn't involve food, bath time. Like this zany car wash. And lots and lots of cute outfits, including a sweater her Great-
Grandma Parker made for her and the teriffic gnome hat Jan got for her. There was so much more, of course.... thanks so much to everyone.

She was full of surprises, too. As mom alluded to earlier, she can clap now -- we've been trying to get her to do that for a long time, so we're really pleased about that. And her use of words is growing by the day -- not just mama, but dadda, bye-bye, and what sounds to us like "bear."

It's said that you regain a sense of the magic of Christmas when you see it through a child's eyes. It's so true. Even though her level of understanding is that it's fun to rip the shiny wrapping paper, the magic is there all the same.