Grace and Hazel

The picture above is another example of what happens when I leave my daughter in the care of Grammie and Aunt Julie. Of course there wasn’t just one.

Here I was thinking that I was getting just under the wire with an hour left to go and I look at the actual date and realize that I am 23 hours LATE. Yesterday was Grace’s 10th month so I’m guessing her warranty is quickly running out. I checked with the NICU and their return policy is onerous at best, so it is a good thing we can’t get enough of that crazy little baby. Tonight I raced home (as much as one can taking two buses and a train) to make sure that I didn’t miss her awake time. My apologies to our friends whose babies keep them up at all hours, but Grace goes to bed early and sleeps past when I have to start commuting, so sometimes I don’t get to see her beyond the baby monitor for 40 plus hours in a row. No fun at all.

I have heard that she is making a new “monster” sound that sounds like an aggressively whispered “rawwwr”. I can imagine that I will spend a few hours this weekend trying to capture that on video. She also is crawling a little in reverse, which the nurse-that-visits-preemies says is pretty impressive. In fact, this month’s visit had the nurse claiming that Grace is now not acting like a her-age-minus-two-and-a-half-months baby, but is now mostly acting her age…which is more than you can say for most of her family (I’m looking at you grandparents).

We have been waiting and waiting for the crawling to start…watching baby-friend after baby-friend just start going. We put her on her tummy and watch and she just flops around. Sure she can sit up, and she has a little dance move but no matter how many prizes, toys and false promises of college tuition we offer, we get nuthin’. Well it turns out that we might have just been looking for the wrong thing. Today, we noticed that after a series of her signature dance moves, she was noticeably closer to the table. While we were looking for some other type of movement, she was really slowly, yet willfully, moving across the room. If you are not watching, you might miss it, but like the end of the ice age, or rising of the oceans, she eventually arrives.

More video clips of our little glacier here.

IMG_0343.JPG, originally uploaded by Lincoln Topliff.

Since coal, Hummers and general human existence have made Winter the new Summer, Grace is getting ready for the 12-month bathing suit season. She has flip-flops, a one-piece and a tropical island mat (because we won’t pour sand in the dining room) so she is a girl for all seasons, all we need is some water.

We posted about the swing a couple days ago but that picture makes Grace look like an errant-yet-happy parachutist in her pajamas. It really takes video to capture the pure glee that we can expect from the park for years to come. Wait til she sees the slide!

We have had unconfirmed reports of waving but this morning waves were not only confirmed and repeated but captured for all the world to see.

She has been mentioned here before but as time goes by, her importance in our lives our dependence on her grows, so she is getting another shout-out. Bla Bla is by all indications Grace’s best friend in the world. Even though she hasn’t figured out that Mommy and Daddy would really like hugs to supplement all the smiles that we get, Grace has no problem lavishing both on her friend and confidante.

At about 18″ tall, Bla Bla is a Peruvian hand-knit, skirt-wearing Owl-faced creature with delicious multicolored tassles on her head that might be pig tails, or ears, or just reminders that she once rebelled against her Owl-faced parents. Bla Bla is not really her name, but it is printed on a tag lovingly stitched onto her back. The company that makes her (also mysteriously called Bla Bla) claims that her name is Prudence, but we like “Bla Bla” and figure that Grace will have an easier time with it, should she ever decide to treat us to a word.

Knowing her given name has helped us track down Bla Bla’s doppleganger which should come in handy in the event that Bla Bla’s smell becomes unbearable, which, as it happens, was yesterday. Fortunately, before we adopted a second Bla Bla, we noticed that they are not all created equal. There are some “mini 12-inch Prudences” that, instead of having the desired soothing effect might just make Grace think she has grown to 150% of her normal size overnight. While that sounds like fun it can only get funnier as the years go by.

After Bla Bla’s “bath” we will return the original to her appointed space next to Grace in the crib to ensure that the one that helps her sleep and hears her secrets is the “real” Best Friend and not some impostor than might give her bad advice. Of course, having two Bla Blas in the house has it’s dangers, but as long as we make sure that they never meet in front of Grace, she will sleep well and her little mind will remain unblown.

I can’t believe it has been a whole week and I have not manage to post anything. I know, I know, inexcusable. In my defense, I’ve was sick over the weekend. I promise to post a bunch of really adorable pictures from NYC (I’ve been waiting for the one of her and Richard Simmons!) as soon as I can.

A few minutes ago, this picture arrived in my inbox and forced me to take a few minutes from the wild world of software development…

After a LOT of practice sitting up, Grace graduated from the safe, comfortable world of the stroller to the wild, high-flying, by-the-seat-of-her-pajamas world of the neighborhood park’s swing. She clearly loved it and probably can’t wait for naptime to tell Bla-bla how exhilarating life on the outside can be.

A couple days without a blog post and the phone is ringing, people are stopping by to make sure we are ok and somewhere bloodhounds are sniffing riverbanks for some sign of the Topliffs. I guess it would be more accurate to say the concern centers on a certain baby. Well, worry not! We are ALL alive and well and back in San Francisco after a wonderful trip to the East Coast. Grace got to meet lots of our old friends and made a few new ones (Hello, Richard Simmons!) along the way.

We will put up some more pictures and some words soon…I promise. Call off the dogs!

She obviously LOVED Van Gogh.