Baby Steps

You know how you're supposed record your baby's milestones in their little baby book?  

"Little Billy's First Smile ~ May 24, 2004"

No one warned me about how hard that actually is.  I'm a little disgruntled!  Ok, not really.  But seriously, I don't have ANY exact dates of when Anna did something for the first time.  It's all been so gradual.  I don't have a "first time sitting alone" or "first laugh" or anything like that, it's very frustrating.  Am I alone in this?  Am I the only mom whose child's baby book is going to be filled with pictures of them doing various things with captions like, "This wasn't your first time sitting or anything, but HEY!  Look at you go!"

Well, now that I've gotten that out of my system... Anna has been busy this week.  She's been gradually getting better at crawling (I think her current speed can safely be compared to The Flash) and is even doing a little cruising.  She is getting really good at turning pages in her board books and is working hard on that "major" milestone:

Pincer Grip!

I was waiting to give her those Happy Baby puffs (which she loves, by the way) until she had developed her pincer grip, as per the requirements listed on the package.  But, then I got impatient.  So, I put a couple in front of her and lo and behold!  She picked one up with her thumb and index finger and that was that!  Apparently, she's been practicing behind my back.

"What, this maneuver?  Yeah, I've been doing it for a while now.  Mom's just blind."

"I have the power!"

You know, I noticed that all of the pictures I'm including this week are of Anna in her highchair.  You don't mind, do you?  

Good, me neither.

She's started signaling that she's done eating by smearing her food all over her tray.  Behold!

Before

After

She, of course, finds it to be hilariously entertaining.  Actually, so do we.  I've discovered that there's really not much more fun to be had in this world than watching my baby have fun.  Her smile and laughter and just... her joy.  It's awesome.

Anna putting her feet up after a good meal.  So cute!

Other than that, there's not much going on over here.  We're still looking for a place to move when our lease is up in, uh, less than a month.  Yikes -- Timecrunched!  Anna stood alone (without any support) for a couple seconds on Saturday.  But again, does that count?  Is that what I put in her book as "First Time Standing Alone?"  Or do I wait until she can actually DO it?  See, these things are so confusing!