She also climbs stairs

We've been visiting friends, friends who have a slightly sunken living room with two stairs.

In a fascinating process, Sophie has gone from befuddled to mastery in two days.  She does slightly better if her pants are off (more traction).  But even fully dressed, she chugs up to the bottom step, panting with excitement and--hand, hand, foot-slip, foot-slip, foot, foot--gets herself up on that first step.  Then the second, even faster than the first.

At first she was trying to go straight up, spanning multiple steps at a time.  She was successful at that a couple of times and then hit on the one step at a time technique.  Now she barely even slows down.

Since she does one step at a time, there is, in principle, no limit to the flight of stairs she could climb.

We're unlikely to ask her to climb up any stairwells yet, though.

and then her mother fell down

We went to a toy store today.

They had a wooden contraption with a solid base on wheels that was designed to let your kid grab on to a handle and walk herself around.

Which is just what happened when we stood Sophie in front of it and let her go.  Shuffle, shuffle, look around--and then: walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk bump, and she stopped when she got to the wall.

I didn't think this was too remarkable, since that's what the thing was designed for.  Her mother, however, no doubt with images of a mobile Sophie in her mind, just kept repeating "oh my god" and looked a bit woozy.

Still no teeth

. . . which has not, however, stopped her from becoming an enthusiastic eater of cheerios.  

She continues to pull up and coo and wave her arms at things.  She has even stood on her own, if we define "standing" as "remaining upright for a second or two before toppling over".  It continues to be disconcerting how she'll move from where you put her when you're not looking.

I'm used to babies that stay in place.

The other day I tried to interest her in some blocks.  She looked at them, devoid of enthusiasm, and then set off for the recycling bin.  As if to say, whatever, keep your blocks, *I'm* gonna get me an empty milk carton.

toddling or teetering

creeping and crawling

She's getting pretty good at pulling her self up on things and is showing more and more frustration with not being able to get where she wants.  She'll growl in anger if she can't get where she wants to get going.

We've got a new game whereby her mother or I stack some blocks and then she knocks them over.  She has quite the triumphant look on her face when she does so.  This last Saturday, I left her with some blocks on the carpet while I went to get some toilet paper to wipe her nose and

HOLY SH*T, SHE'S NOT WHERE I LEFT HER!

Okay people, this is serious, she's achieved mobility.  I found her making slowly, but determinedly for the refrigerator in a sort of galumphing, inelegant hop-drag.  It's not pretty, but it works.  Her eyes gleam with excitement.  Me, I'm realizing that the entire house is now a death trap.  We can't have curtains anymore.  She wants to climb up everything.  Surely she won't let the curtains alone when she discovers them.  And she's developed a perverse fondness for electrical cords.  Not to mention the many small things that lay on the ground.  I'm pretty sure she wanted to explore the underside of the fridge and dig for treasure.  

Must obsessively pick small things from off the floor.  Now that she's been introduced to cheerios, she's not going to let a penny go uneaten.

Once we realized we had a mobile baby on our hands, we spread out a couple of play rugs to give her the range to explore.  She immediately made for the open floor.  Does she not realize that the play rug is printed with tiny roads running around a jolly little town?   I blame this intransigence on her mother.  *I* was always a good little boy.

Thrush

She's got thrush, which is apparently very common and not as bad as it sounds.

It sounds downright medieval to me, like something you might find in a list of ailments along with the gibbering palsy, Wortrath's malheur, tainted noxbustle, wisty, black wisty, and pallid wisty with grenished testkitchen.

Her appetite's still hearty, so that's good.  And we've been given soothing salves, one of which (to judge by her reaction) is quite tasty.  We're supposed to rub it on her gums and in her mouth.  She enjoys this until all of a sudden she doesn't.

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She did not vote yesterday, but she did get a sticker.  I had her free coffee at Starbucks.