Going walkabout

You may recall the Cruisin' video (http://pinkletsplace.blogspot.com/2008/02/cruisin.html) from waaay back in February, and perhaps you're wondering, hey, does that kid walk yet?

Truth be told, she was quite resistant to the idea. So much so, in fact, that if you tried to take her hands and get her to walk with you, her usual response would be to hoist BOTH feet off the ground and protest loudly. Almost as if she suspected that, if she learned to walk, the "carry me EVERYWHERE" gravy train might come to an end.

Eventually, nanny Norma decided enough was enough. I think the other nannies were giving her a hard time ("What, that baby is more than a year old and STILL not walking? Tsk!"). And thus, the hammer was brought down. Norma explained to me that "the Indians" teach their their babies to walk by looping a blanket around them as a sort of handle, and letting them get the feel of what walking is like. Well, Lily was resistant at first, but as you can see she warmed up to it:

Still, no serious attempts at walking on her own.

Well, a bit more time passed and before you know it, we were jetting off to New York to visit Po Po and Gung Gung (our first east coast trip! We'll blog more on that separately). Would being transported to a new environment inspire her to greater achievement? We stepped outside onto Po Po and Gung Gung's driveway the next day to test the theory:

Hm. Perhaps not quite. Oh, well, that's OK, Lily, we'll just go to the tulip festival downtown. But wait, what's this?

Yep, a scant 1 day later, Lily decides to rock out the one-finger-assisted toddle. Which just goes to show that showing off for the grandparents is much more motivational than doing something your parents want.

Later that week, we all (Lily, mama, dada, Po Po, and Gung Gung) all relocated to Aunty Cathy's place outside Boston. Lily must have been waiting to maximize her audience, because a couple days later, on May 9th, THIS happened:

Yayy, Lily! We were ecstatic, both that she chose a moment where a lot of the family could witness her take her first unassisted steps, and also that we were lucky enough to capture it on video! Although in retrospect, the latter is not that impressive, as we pretty much constantly video her on the off chance she does something cute.

Well, following that performance, she seemed to relapse slightly...she would occasionally attempt a step or two, but mostly seemed to prefer the finger assist. But she would walk that way MUCH more readily. Here you see her walking with mama at Drumlin Farm in Massachusetts.

And with dada at the beach:

(also noteworthy in that Lily discovers her love of water is somewhat dependent on the temperature of the water in question)

And at home, she developed other assisted walking methods:

But in general, she seemed reticent to go for the full-on independent walk again. That is, until just this past Memorial Day weekend, when we went up to Nono and Nana's for Mallory's birthday party:

Oooof! Collision! Everyone's OK!

And well, you know, once you get her started it's hard to stop:

So, we're still not TOTALLY steady on our feet, but to answer the question posed at the beginning of this blog, yes, that kid does walk yet. :-)

Happy Birthday, cousin Mallory

Cousin Mallory's birthday was May 8th! Hey, how old is Mallory?

Babyproofing

Well, a couple weekends back, we finally got around to doing a bit of babyproofing...specifically, latches for several of the kitchen cabinets. Good thing, too, because just later that same day, THIS started happening (sped up a bit because I know you're all busy people):






In fairness, she does sometimes try to clean up...



They say it's actually good for baby's development to let her, ah, "explore" like this, so we're letting her have unfettered access to the cabinets that don't have anything poisonous or breakable in them. Besides, it's kind of cute! Although, we'll probably feel different after the thousandth time or so.

We also put gates on the stairs a couple days ago. Why, you may ask? Well, because THIS has been going on:

Oh, and, not babyproofing-related as such, but Lily also now takes it upon herself to double-check the recycle bin. Apparently, to see if it is delicious enough to recycle:

Heaven help us once she figures out how to walk!

The belated birthday blog

Dada is so lame. Here it is, already April and he still hasn't gotten around to posting a blog for my birthday! Guess I'll have to take matters into my own hands.





The fun started a few days before my actual birthday. I woke up SO excited about my party, but I had to wait. I did practice my gift-opening skills on this bit of leftover Christmas present. Hey, dada, is it time to open gifts?

How 'bout if I PULL on your nostril? THEN is it time?

What? I was just asking a question?

I was so excited, I couldn't settle down to nap all day. Dada tried to make me sleep by taking me out for a drive, but I wasn't fooled. I didn't want to miss a bit of my birthday! Anyways, by the time we got back, people had already started to arrive for my party. Yaayyy! Look how festive things are!

See my pretty dress? Po Po and Gung Gung got me this dress, it makes me look very ladylike.

Mama had done a lot of work to make sure it was a really good party. She ordered great Filipino food (which I helped dada pick up while I wasn't napping), decorated the place really nice, made gift bags for all my kid friends, and even made sure there were things for the kids to play with, like games and sidewalk chalk. Here, Lucas is explaining to me how to play Tic Tac Throw...hey! Where are you going with those?






This is my very special cake. My nanny Norma made it for me all by herself! The doll on top is supposed to be me, except I guess when I'm bigger 'cause I don't have that much hair yet. I'd never had cake before! In fact, I don't think I'd even seen cake, at least not this close up. Naturally, in the interests of science I tried to grab it to investigate further, whereupon mama and dada decided maybe they should take me out of my pretty dress until AFTER cake.










Here I am blowing out my candle. Mama helped!

OK, now the moment of truth...cake tasting time!

OK, so maybe I was a LITTLE cranky, but bear in mind that I hadn't had ANY nap. so you gotta cut me some slack!

Next up...pinata time! Of course, I'm too little to really take a swing at a pinata. Some of my friends like Lucas, Clara and Madi are big enough, but mostly seemed to want to negotiate peacefully.


Big kid Natalia finally tries to show us how it's done. Hey, is it just me or does the pinata look like it's trying to run away?








Turns out this is a common problem, for which the pinata industry has created a clever solution. They put on these little ribbons, one of which opens a trap door. Pulling ribbons is much more my speed, so I was able to get in on the act, along with other little folks like Jesse here.


Here I am chillin' with all the Mojica women post-pinata. Whew!







Well, that was about it for the day of my party, but a couple days later, on my ACTUAL birthday, Aunty 'Chelle, Uncle Charlie, Molly, and my boyfriend Andy-rew came over to help me celebrate again. Hey, Aunty 'Chelle, is it time for cake yet?

How about NOW??

I was able, through such methods of gentle persuasion, to convince everyone to give me another chance at attacking a cake. I did a little better this time!






After dinner and cake, we opened more presents, although I seemed to have a hard time concentrating on account of Andy-rew having such a cute bum.







Posing with my future in-laws.





...and with that, I am officially 1 year old! We now close this blog with my cousins Tyler and Joshy singing me Happy Birthday. Yaaayyy!

In further headgear news...

This just in: as you can see from the bandanas, Madi, Mallory, and Lily have apparently all joined gangs. These child gangs, or "backyardigangs" as they like to refer to themselves, are becoming rampant in the preschools and daycares of America. Based on the colors, Madi is a "Pablo", while Mallory and Lily are "Uniquas".

Mallory appears to be trying to make a shiv out of confetti.

Chiquita Balily

Hmm...Aunty Darcy brought me this cool flower headband. It was a present to me from her parents! In Canada! I wonder where that is? Dada says it's the 51st state but I dunno, he has that kinda naughty look like he gets when he's lying.

Aunty Darcy went to visit them over Easter, so she could see her cute new baby sister, Dani. We saw pictures, so we KNOW she's cute. There was also a video of Aunty Darcy and Dani and one other lady doing a dance called the "Banana Split". Hm, between the hat and the dance, I guess Canada is probably somewhere tropical. Lemme change...

There, that's better. But it still needs something...

Maybe a little off the shoulder action? Ohhh, yeahhhh!

OK, well, I'm gonna try to phone Aunty Pat in Canada to thank her. Hope they have phones in Canada. See you later!

-Lily

Kiss the Girl

Soundtrack courtesy of dada's a cappella group. Directed by mama. Kisses by Lily.

For the record, she kisses other people now too. Sometimes. You will still often get a head butt instead. A girl doesn't want to be taken for granted, after all!