Self-Sufficiency

Maybe the title of this post is going a little far. But, Liora definitely has an independent streak (and not just evidenced by the fact that she still picks out all of her clothes every morning herself). She can go for some pretty long stretches (in toddler time) of independent play.

Here she is ripping apart the phone book (I'm glad someone found a use for that):

She also still loves getting in her crib and playing there, usually choosing to read her little books from Cousin Heather. She will ask to get in her crib, and then settle down for some good reading time. We're always happy to see that she can amuse herself.

Pass the Peas

Liora is a fairly good eater. She's a tiny bit picky, but for the most part, she likes to eat, and luckily, it's not all white stuff (as I've heard from other moms) so we're not complaining. The good news is that she loves veggies! And peas in particular. I give you motor pea eating:



And now some food (and other subject) related new words:

• French toast - I asked her one morning if she'd rather have french toast than veggie crackers for breakfast, and I received an enthusiastic head nod along with a 10-minute monologue of "french toast! french toast!"
• Pasta - sounds more like "ra ta"
• Zooks - I have slowly come to the realization that "zss" is Zooks. I thought it was babbling until I started noticing her using it when he is hanging around.

She is also repeating words when we say them now, which is very exciting. She'll try her hardest, but most just come out sounding like "dada."

Buddies

Looking for more evidence of the budding friendship between Liora and Zooks? Here's a pretty long video of Liora (and mommy) throwing balls for Zooks. Of course, he stops chasing these balls as soon as the video camera goes on! It's cool because you can hear Liora saying "ball" and "more"--so it's not just in my head that she has all of these words.



For anyone not interested in suffering through 2+ minutes of video, here are two cute photos of Liora petting Zooks. He's a keeper!

Cat bed

Liora has taken a liking to the cat bed that sits just outside her bedroom and in front of our back door. That interest has coincided with Zooks also taking a liking to that bed. Any time Zooks is in that bed, Liora decides it is time to share. Sometimes, she'll try to give him things (a necklace of mardi gras beads was the last thing I remember), but most of the time, she just wants to squeeze into the bed with him. As you can imagine, Zooks is not a huge fan of that.

Liora will sometimes "take a nap" in the bed when no cat is in it as well. She thinks it's funny...our little joker.

Having just pushed Zooks out, Liora looks out the window.

She gets comfortable...

And Zooks waits patiently to get his bed back.

A missed photo of Liora and Zooks. He moved too fast.

But wait! There's more...I finally have my chance. Let's see how long Zooks lasts.

He's not making eye contact, but he's staying there.

Can his eyes get any more squinty or his ears more alarmed looking? Liora is pleased he is staying for once.

Well, not for long. But Zooks is such a good cat, he just walks away.

The Great Sunglass Caper

Liora likes mommy's sunglasses (and regular glasses), so I thought it was time to get Liora her own pair. Does she like to try them on? Yes. Does she keep them on for any length of time? No. Does mommy try to get photos of her in the sunglasses anyway? Yes. This went about as well as the purse photos. The photo above is about as close as I got to them  being fully on her face, and as you can see, "fat kitty" is in the way. 

Finally success! This lasted for precisely 5 seconds, and I caught it. I was so excited; it's the little things as a parent, isn't it?



Cute Little Lady

Liora squints her eyes when she smiles sometimes, and often in preparation for the camera's flash to go off.

You didn't know we had a mini-greaser? Now you do!

Liora loves daddy! For everyone who was wondering how Adam looks with a beard, here it is!

Close to cat food, a favorite plaything much to mommy's chagrin. But she looks so adorable here.

Sidled up to the breakfast bar on a weekend morning.

Trying on mommy's pajama top.

Getting love from Dee-Dee!

bag lady

I think we've established that Liora likes to carry around things. I tried to capture her carrying around mommy's new purse, but boy does this kid move fast. It took a couple of rounds:

 

And, I am surprised that we have even more new words! She seems to add a few every couple of weeks.

• more - repeated, over and over, until we figure out what she wants more of. Sometimes it's clear, sometimes it's not.
• book - this girl is obsessed. Books are actually my redirection mechanism when she's misbehaving..."want to read a book?" "yes!"
• ball - she is getting good at throwing, still working on catching.

With her dog obsession has come her ability to tell us that doggies "ruff." And a new library book has taught her how to "roar" like a lion. She can point out lots of animals now, like elephants, giraffes, and zebras.