Beep-beep, beep-beep, yeah!

Audrey is winding down for the day by driving around the living room in circles, lurching and crashing into walls. Scott made a quiet comparison to my driving, and then looked away fast when I turned to give him my Death Stare. We danced to some Louis Armstrong, and then a little Moby. Now she's babbling a blue streak-- today the new sound of choice is a "th" sound.

But back to this whole topic of driving. I would wish for my daughter that she never drive like I drive, like a nervous, crazy grandma. And that she learn to drive, for heaven's sake, before she's almost 30. I want her to learn while she's still young enough to feel invincible, and to have that confidence tempered by a healthy fear of what will happen if she wrecks mom and dad's car.

Big week coming up: Grandma Jean is visiting and Audrey turns ONE on Wednesday. I plan to post many photos and clever musings. And somehow this week I will find extra time, between the sofa cushions, with all the loose change.

Hippo-bottomus

The final frontier of baby proofing in our house is the kitchen... so many tempting things for the enterprising baby to get into: the recycling, the cabinets that don't yet have kiddie latches on them, the stale cheerios just reachable under the stove. Both of the exits are gated, though, as you can see above. She likes to open and close the gate herself.

Last night she stood on her own for a few moments, clapped with delight, and then fell down. Other new tricks include some more words, like "CAH!" which means "cat," a name applied to all animals, and "MAH!" which I think is "Mom" and is accompanied by smacking sounds. The smacking is either kissing, or an indication that she wants to eat-- I'm not sure which. She also has been known to make the ASL sign for "milk" to indicate me, which makes me feel like a walking, talking Dairy Queen.

Clap. Stomp. Scream. Mark-it-with-a-B.

I'll tell you what: keeping up with this blog is not as easy as it used to be. Until a couple of months ago, I could set Audrey down sometimes and work on my laptop while she played (and until quite recently, playing could be as simple as watching the ceiling fan). Now, if Audrey and the laptop are in the same room, I have to have the laptop held over my head as if I were protecting it from flood waters, because she will get her hands on the power cord or the keys. She loves buttons. And she loves to do what I do, whether that's hand clapping or typing or drinking from a cup.

If having a newborn is like having a sea cucumber for a pet, having a one-year-old is like having a pet chimpanzee. She imitates everything we do, and even though that is evidence of no special brilliance on her part, we like to think it is.

But I have a lot less time to sit quietly and post pictures. Friends with more than one child say that this is totally normal, and that if I ever have a second child, I will have almost no photos of him/her at all.

How not to film a moving subject

If you are prone to motion sickness you might want to skip this video of Audrey on the front porch swing. If I had better material, I'd post it, but I am aware that I've been neglecting to post much of anything at all this month. There is, it turns out, an inversely proportional relationship between the amount of activity of the growing baby and the amount of activity on the baby blog.

Her first birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. It is astonishing to us that a whole year has passed since we stumbled home from Mt. Auburn hospital and gingerly set her infant car seat down on the kitchen floor and thought, "Well, now what do we do with her?"

When I set her down on the kitchen floor for a moment this morning she rifled through my cookbooks, unplugged my laptop and began to sort through the recycling, all in the span of time it took me to pour a cup of coffee.

Sweater Weather, and a cardigan by Cousin Ruth

Cool fall mornings are finally here, and this beautiful sweater made by our cousin, Ruth, fits Audrey perfectly. Right season, right size-- a trickier combo in children's clothing than I'd realized.

The craftsmanship on this sweater is truly impressive. There's a cable everywhere you look. I wish that when I picked up knitting needles the results looked like this!