Weekend wrapup.

The weekend was kind of a washout, but Dani and I spent some time outside on Friday evening. She's talking up a storm, and keeping us on our toes.

I took some videos outside--I've been trying to get her to master saying "grandma" and "grandpa" for my folks' visit in a few weeks.

And in the front yard:

Here, Dani had just woken up from a nap, ad I plopped Tori into her crib...it looks like they are sharing secrets.

I know they are going to have so much fun together when Tori's a little older!

A typical dinnertime.

Took some videos at dinnertime tonight, of our fun little circus. Dani, the perpetual star of all videos, is 18 months old today. Can't believe how fast the time flies. It seems like just yesterday that I was blogging about little Miss Fussy, and talking about Dani as the fussy one..instead of Tori. Now, she's tearing through the house, talking her head off. She charms the pants off of everyone she meets, and laughs all the time. She's got a hair trigger temper, but can be distracted into giggles quite easily. I adore my Dani.

Tonight, Dani decided she liked ketchup, so Big Man put a little bit on the high chair, and instead of dipping things into it, she leaned over and just put her face right into it and licked it up. OF COURSE, as soon as I got the camera, she decided she didn't want to do it anymore. But, there's still much cuteness to be seen in the two vids.

Here's the second one, a few minutes later...little miss chatterbox.

She certainly makes our dinnertime entertaining!

Kids say the darndest things.

Dani is talking up a storm. She runs through the house naming objects, and parrots back most everything we say. It is absolutely adorable, but there are some things, I don't quite know how to address.

She refers to all men as "daddy". This means that when we are at the grocery store, or anywhere, she points to people and calls out "daddy". Kind of makes for some awkward moments.

Today, at breakfast, Dani was using her fork, pretty successfully. She was managing to poke her eggs and sausage and get it to her mouth on most attempts. She was waving the fork in the air triumphantly after every bite and saying "f*ck". We know she meant fork, but it sure sounded like she was throwing f-bombs at the table. This should make for interesting glances from strangers in the event we take her out to eat.

To keep with the awkward theme, here's a shot taken at dinnertime last night. Dani's less than thrilled about the baby on her lap.

Sadly, I'm missing a party that friends are having as I type--a big one--30th, 50th birthdays and a MSW graduation! After multiple unsuccessful attempts, Dani has still not taken a nap, and she would be a train wreck if I tried to take her anywhere until she does. I'm not letting her out of her crib again until she sleeps--which should be for a few hours when she finally gives in. She still hasn't taken a bath today, so by the time she gets up, gets clean and dressed for going out, and eats something, it will be dinnertime or later--factor in a 30 minute drive and we're almost at bedtime.... Sorry Tom and Ali--wishing you all the best on your big day!

I can haz bookz?

Dani is really getting into (tolerating my constant reading of) the board books. We read them morning and night. She even tries to hold them, and has a baby obsession with Elmo. I am convinced that Elmo may be the first word she utters and actually understands. The kid is seriously crushing on Elmo.

In other news, Dani has begun to babble. She did it for the first time (in my presence) last night. I learned two things: she has done it before and Big Man DIDN'T tell me. He said she's broken out with some ma ma and some ba ba prior to yesterday. I have to confess I'm kind of glad that he didn't tell me because then when she did it in front of me I didn't feel like I missed it. (Thank you Big Man. You always get to see the stuff first! But, I'm glad you let me do it too.) The second thing I learned is that Dani recognizes the camera and focuses on it when she sees it...little ham just like her mommy! Thank God she's abandoned the baby hiss!

Behold the babble:

Finally, I'm on my county's SPCA Board of Directors, and they were having a wine tasting tonight. I decided to bring Dani because I needed to show up, even if I couldn't really help much. It was going to be her first big, crowded event, and she did great! I brought the baby carrier, and had her face me, because people have a tendency to get all up in a baby's grill, and sometimes Dani isn't a fan of that, and I figured if the people or noise bothered her, she would be facing me, and calm...she spent the entire 90 minutes we were there trying to turn around to see everything! She could not get enough of the people and was so smiley and happy. Hoping she'll be a social butterfly like mommy! It was really fun, except mommy didn't taste any wine, because something felt wrong about walking up to tasting tables with a baby strapped to me!