She's coming along in walking and talking... well, more in walking. She walks all over the place now, I mean not gracefully, but she can do it. She seems to enjoy the freedom of movement, often wandering down the hall to the other side of the house, and whenever I come into the room, she toddles right over and hugs my legs.

She now speaks about six or seven words, though she is missing a lot of sounds so you have to have a keen ear. She can say "mama" (though usually just ma), and "da" (which is dad), and "dog" (she can't do 'g' so it's about the same as dad, and she also likes to fake-pant with that just to get her point across), cat (but she can't do the 't'). She also says "snake", but she can't do the 's' or the 'k', so it's just "nay". There are a lot of snakes outside in the grass, and we go snake-watching often. She isn't afraid of them at all, she likes to see them and has even touched them a couple times. Also I think she says "rain" but she can't say the 'r' and gets the syllables mixed up so it's also "nay".

Today she pulled out a book that had written music in it, so I started pointing it out to her and singing the songs, and she made a singing noise, practicing changing the pitch of her voice.

What she loves the most right now is water. When it rains, a puddle forms out on the back patio and it just makes her crazy until she can go out and play in it, stomping and splashing and trying to pick it up in her hands. A few days ago it was raining fairly hard and she really wanted to go outside but she didn't have a shirt on, so I took her outside just to show her how miserable it was. I stepped out under the rain and she just squealed with glee. I set her down on the ground and she just absolutely loved being rained on.

She also will find the doggie's water bowl whenever she can and splash in it and usually tip it over, if we don't put it up. And one special pleasure is sitting on the edge of the bathroom sink and playing in the water. She knows how to turn it on, and then she puts her hands underneath it and tries to bring it up to her mouth. If I put my hand in there she pushes me to cup my hand under the water and lift it up for her to drink.

She sure loves her daddy! I work all day in the den, usually with the door closed, and it's always a challenge when I come out to use the bathroom or eat. She hears me moving around and wants to see me, for me to carry her around, and she won't go back to mom without some serious distraction.

She isn't quite as adventurous with food as she began, but she still has a pretty varied diet. About a month ago she decided she could eat with a spoon by herself, and she's getting fairly good at it, but of course gravity foils her fairly often. Just the last week or so she decided to try a fork, which didn't go very well until I showed her how to stab things in the downward direction, which she picked up right away, and now she's working on that all the time. It's necessary to be careful what I show her; she gets frustrated extremely easily if she tries to do something and cannot.