Baby steps

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."