Well, we were right. Button started taking steps during the last few days of her 8th month, and by mid-9th month she was a walking pro. For a while we called her our Little Frankenstein because she walked with her arms sticking straight out in front, but she has since become quite adept at the skill and chooses it as her preferred method of mobility. And she loves mobility.

We had our house painted this month and our would-be dining room is now a rusty red. It looks great, especially since it actually matches Button’s Pack’n’Play now. I know that may seem a bit unneccessary, but the reason we call it a “would-be” dining room is that as of yet, the room remains unfurnished with anything but her 500 million toys.

Speaking of toys, we have decided that this is going to be a rather inexpensive Christmas for her, as she seems to have little interest in actual baby toys. She would much rather play with a comb, a post-it note or a pool ball any day than the above mentioned 500 kazillion toys. She’ll pick a half-empty water bottle over the latest fangle-dangle-sparkle-spangle baby toy any day of the week. Occasionally, she comes to work with me and my co-workers have been known to ask what I’ve done to her, since her favorite toys appear to be office supplies. My little future secretary in the making.

Monday we took Button with my parents to one of Dallas’ premier photographers. The photo shoot was the fulfillment of a gift certificate J and I gave my parents for Christmas, with the intention of getting a portrait made with them and Button. The shoot was a success and Button did very well. In fact, the photographer was so taken with her that she invited us back in two weeks so Button can model for a workshop she’s teaching.

While her new walking skills are exciting, she has managed to pick up a few nasty habits in the last month, including an almost total strike from solid foods, and the propensity to eat any and every particle she finds on the floor…even geckos. While she’ll jump at the chance to shove a bit of grass in her mouth, her new favorite delicacy is carpet. It’s becoming an obsession. I’m sure we could recarpet our house with the amount of fuzz bits we have pulled out of her mouth. We were beginning to wonder where all these magic strands were coming from (it’s not like we never vacuum, despite what my mother may tell you) but recently the mystery has been solved: THE CAT TREE.

Yesterday, I was awarded the Worst Mother in the History of the World Award by my daughter, after blocking her access to said shedding cat tree with some kitchen chairs. There ensued much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Ok, the gnashing might be an exaggeration, I think you have to have more than two teeth to properly “gnash.” But it was not a popular move.

Actually, our house is beginning to resemble a battered fort, barricaded at every entrance with random pieces of furniture, toys, boxes, and whatever else was around at the time. Since she’s walking now, Button has discovered a whole new realm of exploration, and we have chairs and gates scattered about to discourage her access to some of her favorite items: the fireplace, the speakers, dog food, a wobbly table, the water dish, cat tree, candlesticks, stairs, etc. So if you come over, don’t expect a place to sit. All our chairs are taken.

One of her favorite games now is playing a variation of Peek-A-Boo with the sheer curtains on our windows. There’s something about being able to see through fabric that really tickles her. It is the source of many laughs and consequent wrestling matches.

Basically, this month has been very full and our daughter has grown up more in these last few weeks than we could have thought possible. Sometimes we wish she would just SLOW DOWN ALREADY, but every thing she learns and discovers is so much more fun.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 17th, 2006 at 1:00 am and is filed under Milestones, Monthly Newsletter, Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.