It's the moment we've been waiting for . . . Mimi has taken her first steps! She was watching her friend Emerson walk, and I guess she decided she could do that too. Since it was July 4th, we'll always remember the date! Here's a photo Emeri took while she was taking the first step and a short video.
July 4th was a special day for another family member -- it was Spike's 16th birthday. Spike has been with Clint since he was in 9th grade -- imagine My Dog Skip but with a Rat Terrier in Batesville, MS. The first time I met Spike I realized he is the most peculiar little animal with his funny little trot, all his sniffing around and the way he answers to a secret language that Clint's family spoke to him . . . "Itty bud, wantsompintoEAT?" Sure, he might hike his leg and pee in the house occassionally, and, yes, he constantly begs for food and wants nothing more than to be left alone . . . but he's become family to me and I hope he's around for another 16 years.
Since Mimi is getting close to the one-year-old mark (yes, I'm still in denial about this), we bought her new, forward-facing carseats so she can see the world from a whole new perspective. And the most excited part of this of course is the boxes! She has had so much fun crawling in and out of them . . . and it looks like Clint did too!
At eleven months old, these are some of Mimi's favorite things (sorry this is so long but I'm afraid I'll forget if I don't put it somewhere!):
Food: Bananas (she says "nana" and reaches for them whenever we're in the kitchen), tomatoes, squash, rice, beans, and goldfish crackers . . . and anything off my plate.
TV show: Sesame Street -- we LOVE to turn it on just to watch her reaction to the song and Elmo (this usually consists of lots of smiling, hand waving, and booty shaking).
Songs: she likes to sing "EI EI EI" when she hears Old MacDonald, and she rocks back and forth and says "Row Row" whenever I sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat.
Toys: anything that can be pushed down the hall or lights up and plays really loud nursery rhymes. She also loves any toy that Ruthie has -- and she seems to think Ruthie might also be a toy.
Words: although she can say Mama, Dada, hi, bye, ball, etc., her favorites things to say are "dugga dugga dugga" and "doy doy doy." What? She is very chatty right now and feels the need to constantly talk . . . I wonder she gets that from?
Her "tricks": She loves to point at ceiling fans and say something that sounds like "round and round and round" while she waves her hand in a circle. She makes a really funny scary face. She shakes her booty from left to right on command and has even added a new twist move over the past few days. She likes to drop things (especially food) so she can say "uh oh."
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She LOVED her cake and dove right in . . .and then went crazy with a sugar rush and ran around the house for a couple of hours!
Here we are about a year ago with our new little bundle . . . we had no idea what the first year would be like. As Mimi grew bigger, we grew wiser and a little less selfish -- 3 feedings a night will do that to a person. Before we had a baby, our lifestyle consisted of sleeping in as late as possible, going out to dinner almost every night, sending our dog Ruthie to doggie day care (which is more expensive than Mimi's!), watching TV all night, and basically feeling like we had very little responsiblity other than work. Needless to say, the priorities have definitely changed, and we have changed for the better. Clint and I know all the songs on Sesame Street and we buy organic produce. I don't even pay attention when Anthropologie or J. Crew has a sale, but I go nuts when Cotton Tails has smocked dresses for $35! In the past we watched Dave Chapelle when we wanted to laugh -- now we just sit in the floor with our little one-year-old and crack up at her trying to dance or be silly. .JPG)
Mimi with her cousin Nick.
Mimi's first wine-tasting . . . well, she had a sippy cup of milk instead.
Mimi was a fantastic traveler as always. We had Curious George on for about 2 minutes before she fell asleep on the way home.
Last weekend Mimi made her second trip to the beach in Santa Rosa, FL. The first time we took her she was 8 weeks old, so it was much different this time around. For one, she doesn't sleep quite as much during the day now, so we were concerned about making the long drive and keeping her happy. Despite all our worries she was such a trooper in the car and was easily entertained. Clint even let her drive some!
One night we went to the beach to search for crabs and for Clint to fish a little, and Mimi was so excited. Maybe it was because the sun wasn't so bright and there weren't as many people around, but she really didn't mind the water and sand as much as she had during the day.
Mimi does really funny things with her tongue now. When she's playing I notice her sticking out her tongue to the side and babbling.
Mimi is starting to develop her own opinions about certain things now -- which foods, toys, and blankets she likes -- and I think her personal "style" should be no different. As much as I love sweet little pink smocked dresses, I think Mimi would appreciate that I also try to throw in some more fashionable, trendy options occassionally, such as this retro bubble and silver gladiator sandals. I know she'll thank me one day:)
