Happy Baby

My “baby” was 18 months old on Friday. She’s talking up a storm. She jabbers constantly and in that jabber, you can hear words you recognize. She’s also talking and using her sign language together now. She’ll give the sign for plane while she says “aplane.”  She does the same when she sees a bird. She can clearly demand her favorite TV shows:

• “A Cue” for Blues Clues
•  ”Bop” for Barney because, sadly, her favorite character on that show is the ever-annoying, whiny Baby Bop
• “Mo” for Sesame Street and the lovable Elmo.

 On the day she turned 18 months, she started clearly saying “Happy Baby” while playing or when I released her from the bondage of her high chair so she could continue her hurricane destruction of my house. Early that evening, my husband and teen ran some errands and took her along. The errand-running ended at Silky Freeze (Dad’s are so much more fun when they run errands). On the way home, my teen fed spoonfuls of that delicious frozen custard to the baby, who expressed her gratitude by loudly proclaiming that she is a “Happy Baby.”

Her “happy baby” status is evident in this picture, which was taken on our visit to Vlassis Park in Ballwin, MO on one of those glorious spring days we had in St. Louis last week. She is delighted with the slide and so proud of her ability to navigate all by herself.