A collection of "firsts"

The M children have been busy, busy, busy these past few months. (Which means, of course, the M parents have been crazy busy, too.) They are learning like mad. But before I write anything else, or any more time gets away while I can't get to the writing, let's get some of  Girlie's big "firsts" documented. She has had a whole slew of them, all within about the past month.

Girlie is a natural water baby and took to her First Bath (first in the big tub, that is) like a champ. She enjoys splashing, thrashing, pouring, banging wet toys together, pulling up against the faucet, and generally making a big sloppy mess while laughing maniacally.

Girlie has been standing up and cruising for quite a while now, but more recently she's gotten bold and brave about letting go and standing unsupported. That was followed rather suddenly by two episodes of "first step." I didn't mark either on her official baby calendar, though, because she seemed to be unaware of what her feet did at that moment. In the week following, Girlie had a First Stand (from a sit, without holding on to anything). And then it only took another week. Her real, official, oh-look-at-what-I-can-do First Step came one week ago. And wouldn't you know, over the next couple days, she right away pulled off several series of two or three steps. And finally yesterday--alternately toddling and crawling, then popping back up again with confidence! She's really taking off and making progress now. It won't be long before she can hold her own in the rowdy running and tumbling games her brothers concoct. Wouldn't you know, self-defense turns out to be a great motivator to learn to move.

Girlie also has said a First Word, but we are somewhat in disagreement which word really came first. Girlie has enthusiastically waved her hands and yelled "Ha!" for a good long while, but until recently, we were not really certain whether it was just a happy noise or her baby-voiced version of "Hi!" We've also cleared heard both "Dada" and "Mama," but in both early-on cases, she might have meant us, or she might have double-pronounced similar-sounding objects nearby. We're relatively certain we've also heard her versions of "book," "tube" (she likes to hold and wave arround a tube of Desitin during diaper changes), "apple," and "milk," too. But two recent words have been crystal clear. Hand the girl a hairbrush, and she yells "buh" or "bus," rubs it on her head, and then flips it over and yells "dut!" while pointing to the duck decal on back, grinning the whole time. She's very proud of her words--now if we would just get with the program on how to translate them!

And, on a less comfortable note, Girlie's working on breaking her First Molar. Her four front teeth are only a couple months old, and they gave her quite a bit of trouble. But they're nothing compared to this molar. I kind of suspect there's more than one working at the same time, the swollen spot is just so big. Oww! But all things considered, she seems to be taking the sore spot pretty well. She's pretty good at distracting herself with some new discovery.