SLOANE AT 7 MONTHS

I surprised myself with how excited I got about the fact that one day, all of sudden, she started clapping. I’m realizing it really is all a matter of perspective – months go by where the baby is a tiny frail lump, waving her arms about, not realizing what they’re for, and then one day, she is taking her small hands and clapping them together, delighted by the sound it makes. It’s freakin’ amazing. That’s the thing about watching her grow before my very eyes, I get silly delighted by the smallest of things and at the same time get huge and philosophical and big-picture-minded by what it means to witness a baby grow into a person.

She also started army crawling, and I’m not kidding you, I got a little emotional. Up until last week, she had been getting increasingly mobile by expertly rolling around, turning herself in circles with her arms, rocking back and forth while in crawling position, and she also got pretty good at crawling backwards. But then this past week, she really wanted to get to a book, and I watched as she climbed the floor as if it were a wall, and got herself that book. It was all of 2 feet, but I don’t know, I was a little speechless. And then naturally, I screeched at ken to hurry up and come look.  It’s natural development, yes yes, but also, it feels like witnessing a miracle! 

She has always squawked like a baby dino (or dragon), from the very first couple of weeks,  but a few weeks ago, when k.’s grandma was here, my sis-in-law recorded Sloane reacting in squawk-speak to her great-grandma and from then on, she was ms. i-have-something-extremely-important-to-say. Is this an indicator of things to come? I wouldn’t be surprised. Ken is loud and passionate, I’m vocal and verbal, Ken used to be a stubborn child, I used to be a bossy child.  

She is still as easy going as ever, but she is developing more feelings, that’s what it seems like anyways; she is developing more opinions to communicate that yes, she needs to be picked up, that yes, she wants more milk, no, she can’t take one more bite, yes, she’s quite pleased, no, she doesn’t want you to wipe her nose, yes, that’s the funniest thing she’s ever heard, yes, keep dancing, yes, she’s happy to see you, and WHAT is the story with that fluffy creature that lives with us?

^Here is a video her being vocal, here and here (I'm not just trying to be annoying there in that second video, I'm joining in on her yells 'cause she seems to think us doing that with her is a way of communicating/chanting/singing?) ^

After the photo shoot, she was all, 'we done here mama? how do i get off this thing?'