Today, tooth number 6 broke through the surface. As could be expected, today was a fussy day (and the last few days, as well), but not nearly as bad as when her center teeth came through. This one is another eye tooth (the little teeth adjacent to the center teeth). It is on her upper left side. Her other eye tooth is on her lower right side. The upper right eye tooth will likely break through in the next few days (there is already a hole forming), and the last one is pushing, but I don’t know how close it is yet. Then, I believe she gets a break for a while, as the canines don’t usually start coming in until 18 months or so! That would be a relief for both of us!

Today, Kari and Frida came over to hang out with Joy while I tried to get some last-minute baby-proofing stuff done:

Okay, Joy is totally going to have curly hair! Whenever it gets wet, it looks wavy/curly. See:

She did it!

It happened this evening at 9:26. It was sort of awkward, because she kept on wanting to lift up on her feet, and she shimmied a lot from side to side, but she did move forward on her knees and she did take a few steps forward with her hands!

Woohoo! Joy, you did it! Way to go!

(not the first time Joy has had this beautiful fruit, but I do think she was liking it today!)

Joy, helping me with the laundry:

She likes tipping the basket over, taking stuff in and out of the basket, and occasionally, she tries to get in it herself!

So, Joy has made a few advancements in the last several days…

1) I caught her imitating me reading (I think that’s what she was doing!!) She was holding up a board book the same way I would hold it up, and instead of chewing on it, it sounded like she was reading. It was babble, obviously, but it was with a tone that sounded like reading!!! ha!

2) Joy figured out how to give Raspberry kisses!!! So cute!!! It happened last night. She was moving all around in bed, including on top of me, and suddenly, she blew a Raspberry on my belly! I clapped, and said, “yay!” and she did it again. I cheered again, and she did another one, and another, and another. She probably gave me 30 in all! So funny! I was cracking up! Today, she did a few more, this time on my arm! So hilarious!

The biggest new advancement of all:

Joy sang her first word!

Every morning, I try to sing her the “Hello Song” from our Music Class. It goes, “Hello everybody! So glad to see you! Hello Everybody, so glad to see you!” then we do each kid’s name, so, “Hello to Joy, so glad to see you! Hello to Joy, so glad to see you!” When I was in the spanish version of this class, we had another verse too, “Buenos dias a Joy, y como estas? Buenos dias a Joy! Como Estas? (muy bien!)”

So, anyway, I sang her the hello song as usual this morning, and when I was done, Joy sang, “Hello!” in the correct pitch of the song! It was so amazing at first I thought I must have imagined it. I wish I would have reacted better though. Last night, with the raspberries, I cheered and clapped, and it got her to do it again. This morning, though, I was so shocked, I didn’t cheer, I just acted really surprised, “Joy, what did you just DO?” which was not as fun of a reaction as cheering. Hopefully I didn’t scare her from trying again!!! It was so amazing, my little baby sang her first word! I sort of doubt she knows what it means, but she does clearly know it’s part of a song, and what pitch it’s in. So cool!!