Layla's enthusiasm

Layla likes a lot of weird things. She LOVES her sippy cup like it's the long-lost friend she just discovered.



She also loves her monkey chair and now that she's mobile she doesn't even need to be in it - she just wants to go over and shake it a bunch.



Other things she finds fascinating:

Shoelaces
Furniture hardware (particularly the coffee table drawer knobs)
Remote controls
Computer keyboards (early evidence she is leaning towards geekdom)
Cups (not just sippy cups - any kind of cup)
Zippers and buttons and straps
Strings and cords
Coasters - especially our bamboo ones (although we let her have those so she is quickly losing interest)

As you can see in the video, we have one enthusiastic kid on our hands. It's fun to rediscover the joy of things like shoelaces as you watch her delight in them.

Waving!

Layla is waving! She is also, as I mentioned before, using sign language to tell us 'more' and 'milk'. Unfortunately she still gets all these confused (and sometimes just generically smacks her hand on something), but we've been able to pick out some definite intentional gestures in between all the others. Below she turns a generic hand-smacking into a wave, and waves at me, then her dad, then at me some more, then decides she's done and exits.



You may notice at the end of the video I say 'you're so cute' - I say this a lot in videos and I suspect I might say this a lot in general. I guess it's good positive reinforcement for Layla but I didn't even realize I was doing it so often until i was going through all these videos tonight. Well I guess at least it's clear to you all how I feel about her!!

A day in the life

This is our little Layla, cruising all around the place and working on her motor development skills. They say that the reason babies start to get more lean as they pass the 6-month mark is because they become so active - if that is true then Layla will become as skinny as a string bean soon!



Two notes: 1. Her extreme drive to play is very clear in this video - she doesn't stop just to cry about a little old bump! 2. In the background you can see the consequence of her new mobility - stuff is everywhere! She pulls things down from anywhere she can and it all ends up on the floor. Usually she doesn't pay any attention to it after she pulls it down but every once in a while she finds something so interesting she lets go of whatever she is holding onto and falls on her butt. Poor Layla!

Stroller coma

Whenever we take Layla out in her fancy-pants new stroller she immediately goes into 'stroller coma' - she gets a glazed look, gets really quiet, and stays totally still for however long you are out. I take this to mean she likes the stroller. The Studly Hubby claims she has stayed in 'stroller coma' for over an hour while he was out running, on several occasions!!

Now that it's getting cold we have to make sure we get a hat on her (the knit hat my friend B made is now too small! But we liked it so much we went out and got another knit hat). We are also looking for some baby-mittens to buy and we put little socks and soft-soled shoes on her. Here we were only out for a bit so we just tucked a warm blanket around her.

She is getting very big for the Moby wrap (front-carrier) but I still use it a lot especially to take her to daycare while I walk my bike with all of our bags of stuff for the day. We both love the Moby, and Layla will cheer up every time she is in it even when she's super mad at me for not getting her to the daycare fast enough in the morning. I think one of the things she likes best is being right in front and center so she can say hello to all the patrons of the coffee shop that is on our way. They all think she is super cute and often stop to tell her that. It's very fun for her - and it's pretty fun for me too!!

More 6 month photos!

Here are the rest of Layla's 6-month photos!!

First pony ride!!

Layla sat on a pony for the first time last weekend at Biringer Pumpkin Farm near Edmonds WA. We were extremely excited about it; she was indifferent. For the record, the pony was also indifferent (he was eating grass the entire time).

New Layla video!

We finally caught the elusive Layla crawling on video - which actually took a while.\



While we had the video camera out we also caught her 'crazy happy' mood, which seems to be induced by nothing in particular. Here she is extremely excited about the couch.



And here she is watching her crazy daddy (the one and only Studly Hubby) tearing back and forth down the hallway. I'm not sure what he was trying to do but it was pretty funny watching her while he did it.