Joy took her first step today! It was a single independant step. She was holding onto the railing, turned towards me, let go, took a step into my arms! I’m not sure she even realized it happened, but I was very excited! Yay, Joy, you did it!

Joy officially knows what toes are. This morning I asked her, “where are my toes?” and she pointed at them!

Joy has figured out how to make clicking noises with her tongue! Both she and I are quite delighted!

I remembered one other word Joy has said in the approriate context:
Towel (she said it “ta-el”)

She’s also been growling whenever she hears the word “bear,” and whenever she sees a dog (or cat), she points and says, “daw.” It’s pretty cool! She seems unhappy when I tell her a cat is a cat, but I can see why she’d think any furry animal is a dog.

It came to mind that my last post wasn’t entirely complete. I forgot a few things!

A couple more words Joy has said on one occasion, and under appropriate circumstances:

duck (she said it today)
cool
Baby doll (okay, it kind of sounds like “bay dow”) but this one she has actually said several times in reference to a doll

Joy has also barked at more than one dog, and has growled when talking about bears. So, it really is a pretty exciting time, the beginnings of language!!! I will keep you posted on any new developments.

Wow, It’s been a while since I’ve posted, huh? We have been busy. First, we got rid of most our stuff (well, Joy kept most of hers), then we moved, then we stayed at Kari’s old place in Chicago for a couple of weeks. Now, we are at Brian’s parent’s place until Wednesday, at which point we will journey on. We are being nomadic travelers, seeing the world and visiting some folks. Sooner or later, we will move on to North Carolina, where we hope to land. Joy’s doing a great job handling all this commotion, which makes me really glad.

A couple of major developments have happened for Joy in the last month or so. She has learned how to point!!! It’s so exciting! Whenever she points at something, I tell her what it is. I try to include adjectives, especially colors. She seems to really enjoy this excersize.

As I mentioned in the post, “nose,” Joy does know the meaning of some words, like nose. She knows mama and papa. I’m working on gentle, up and down. Those seem like very helpful words, although she’s pretty good at telling us with her body when she wants up or down. She is doing all the great social gesturing, so she now waves, points, opens her arms for “up” wiggles to get down, hugs, and somewhat (although open-mouthed).

Joy doesn’t say any words consistently although she has said the following words in the appropriate context one time each:

hello
hi (actually twice for this one)
dog
doll
daisy (as in “oopsy daisy”)

She often says, “mamamamama” although I’m not at all sure she means me, even though I know she knows I am mama. Today, Dixie asked her where her mama is and she pointed at me!!!

She is still crawling and cruising around, and getting into everything. She especially loves paper. Generally, she rips it up and eats it, but there is one book that she only flips the pages (gently, too!) It’s a National Parks book of Dixie and Eldon’s. She loves to just sit and flip the pages. It’s pretty fun to watch her and tell her what she’s looking at!

She’s getting better and better at eating food. She loves rice cakes, and soft adult food. She loves things that she can put in her mouth herself, although she likes a lot of pureed stuff, too. She’s pretty good at drinking out of a water glass held up by an adult, although a lot tends to go down her front!

In the next day or two (before I leave Aurora), I’ll try to get some pictures updated on here… so, stay tuned!