Day 275: Classical Baby

I've mentioned before that Michal is a huge fan of Classical Baby.  Presented by HBO, we DVR episodes of the show, which features "a kaleidoscope of color, motion, and music."  A diapered baby conductor crawls out, takes his place in front of the orchestra, and leads the viewer through music from some of the world's greatest composers, accompanied by artistic imaginations of some famous paintings.  Michal adores the show - it is the one thing on TV that holds her attention, and given the content, we are okay with her watching it.  She doesn't watch it often, but it is a treat every once in a while.

This morning was one such treat, and I managed to capture Michal's reaction to seeing the baby conductor crawling out to his podium.  HUGE smile right away.

Day 274: The Many Faces of Michal

After a couple of crazy sleep days, we had a lovely day at home.  While Michal still fought her naps like we were trying to torture her in cruel and unusual ways, the rest of the day was filled with fun, crazy, silly baby-ness.  Michal is super fun.  She has many moods, ranging from serious, observant baby (at the zoo yesterday) to silly goofy baby.  Here are a few Michal faces from today. 

 Hanging with Daddy watching baseball.  

I love watching the two of them together. 

Apparently somebody wants to play Mario Kart?  

Someone needs to tell the kid that that wheel isn't hooked up to anything. 

 That's why it isn't changing the action in the Cardinals-Phillies game. 

Practicing "walking."  Yep.  The kiddo is 13 1/2 months old and in her typical laid back, chill way, she's cool just crawling and cruising around. 

 Tickle fest.  If you look on the left hand side of the photo, you can barely see that she is holding my hand to her tummy.  If I stop tickling her, she waits a second, then pulls my hand back in for a tickle.  And she laughs and laughs.  What a silly goose.

Love this face to pieces. 

I almost caught her infamous smooshie face.  She often goes around with her lips pushed out into a pout, but I never catch it with the camera.  

This is almost it. 

Handless baby.  With crazy curly hair. 

Another crazy baby shot - with a thousand teeth.  Holy moly the teeth.

Day 273: Afternoon at the Zoo

Today was the second day of Rosh Hashanah, so after services, we headed down to The National Zoo for the afternoon.  Michal is really getting to love watching and saying hello to the animals.  She is her daddy's daughter. 

Waving to the prairie dogs. 

Reluctantly saying hello to the orangutan.  She was clutching Josh's shirt for dear life.

Fun fact:  this orangutan threw up and then ate her own vomit.  Twice.  It was super fun. 

Saying hello to the giant tortoises.   

 Watching them move oh so slowly.

Waving to her favorite cow. 

The other cow.  Isn't she beautiful? 

Up close and personal with one of the goats. 

They will try and eat anything.  This one was working on nibbling on the soap label.

We are continuing to work on our signs.  After MONTHS of work (ie my frantic signing), Michal now signs "more."  This particular sign has been successful when used in conjunction with challah.  Now we are working on "please."  I tried to take a picture, but I have yet to be successful.  To sign "please," you hold your hand in front of your chest, palm facing in, and rub in a circle on/in front of your chest.  Michal's "please"? Extend both arms and wave your hands in circles.  Totally the same thing.

Day 272: Family Outing

We took advantage of the gorgeous afternoon and took a family walk.  Not many warm sunny days left - fall is coming! 

Rare opportunity to pet Bailey - he normally steers clear of the baby.

Greeting a random passer by.   

And yeah... much of the day looked like this.  

Someone decided that she only needed a twenty minute nap.  
She was wrong.  So very wrong.

Day 271: Shanah Tovah!

Tonight starts Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year.  In celebration, we gave Michal some traditional food for the holiday - apples and honey!  

She didn't waste any time!  And yes, the apple is as large as her head. 

Yum!  It's awesome having teeth - makes eating apples possible. 

Hmm... can I eat the honey, too? 

And, of course, challah drizzled with honey.  

She liked it so much that she actually used the sign for "more" a ton - I've been using it with her for months, and so far she has only used it when asking for bananas and challah!

Smart kid.

Day 270: New Word

There is a new word in Michal's vocabulary, which pretty much consists of "Hi!" and "Bye!" and "Buh-bye!"  Josh claims that "Mama" is in there, but I'm not sold.


Today, when asking for her sippy cup by reaching out towards it and frantically signing "milk" (The sign for milk is a lot like milking a cow (or goat), but without the vertical motion – you are just squeezing the udder. You take a hand, make a fist, relax, and repeat), and added something new - she also said "mil."  Twice.  Josh says she repeated it later at home.


So there you have it folks.  Michal can say "milk," in her own special way.  Such a grown up girl!

Day 269: Yo, Gabba Gabba!

While Josh and I are huge TV fans (is it a golden age of great television, or what?), we do not tend to watch much with the baby.  We aren't hugely against it, although we do tend to be fairly picky about what she watches, but we just do not spend much time with her downstairs in the basement.  That's where the television lives.  The vast majority of her toys are on the main level, without a TV, so she is not frequently around one.  Although, we do sometimes have breakfast in bed, and she gets to watch "Classical Baby," still a favorite, or "Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends."

Today, I wanted to try to do a little bit of cleaning, so down to the basement we went, in time to watch a little "Yo Gabba Gabba."  For those of you without children or who have never seen The Soup (which often features segments of YGG), it's a crazy show that makes you question your take on reality - it's just a little... off.  Gun, goofy, and silly - it makes you want to dance.

Michal gets up close and personal with DJ Lance Rock. 

After a few seconds of being super close to the big screen, I moved her back a decent distance.  Here she is, waving "HI!" to Foofa. 

I can never resist an up close picture of this kid.  Love those curls, her eyes, pretty much everything about her.  Don't you just want to squeeze her and kiss those cheeks?