Keeping busy...

Mabel's walking is amazing - so amazing that she doesn't want to sit still! She's off around the house and sometimes she doesn't want my mother to follow her during the day! She often claims her baby doll has a dirty diaper so she can go into the other room for a baby wipe all by herself. She also has been really working on her vocabulary! My little walker is also a little talker. No one would really know it by just spending a minute with her - she needs to warm up to people, but around the house, wow! She's saying things like, "Mommy Mabel up stairs." "Baby Doll diaper dirty. Baby wipe!" "New ball down stairs." "Mommy zucchini bread, encore!" "Yummy Yummy Mabel's Tummy!" She's just putting words right together!

Yesterday Mabel and I had lots of errands to run. We had to stop at four stores all together and she did great. I remember when she was newborn through oh...eight months the thought of bringing her to the store was terrifying. I was never one of the those mothers that just brought my baby right out after birth - in my defence it was winter and she was a premie! And then once I started feeling confident that she wouldn't freak out in the store then she had to be in the spica cast and couldn't fit into the shopping cart or her stroller! Now, it is a breeze. She loves riding in the cart and pointing out the other babies. Our last stop was Target and we went down the baby doll isle (I'm a kid at heart too) plus I was scoping out clearance deals for Christmas. We walked by all those awful "baby alive" dolls that activate and start talking, crawling and playing peekaboo when we were leaving the isle and after that until we got home she kept saying "Baby Robot!" "Baby Robot Crawls!" Yes, my 20 month old has "robot" in her vocabulary thanks to Zack calling her pooh bear that sings "Robot Pooh". Now I was beyond impressed that she got the meaning for "robot" as something that is animated and then combined it with baby. Oh yeah, she talked about those robot babies all day!

Sunday we went to the Zoo in the morning. Zack and I talked about the beach, it is the end of the season but honestly neither of us felt like it. We talked about the zoo before and thought Mabel wold like it and she LOVED it! She loves to people watch so the other people there were just as interesting to her as the animals. They had a butterfly exhibit and she loved seeing the flowers and butterflies fluttering around. Then the next love the lama - she loved the lama. The lama really put on a show for her too laying down and rolling in the dirt. After that it was all "Lama encore!" She saw lots of other animals and loved them all. After that we got ice cream (hey, its the weekend!) and headed home for a terrible nap. Poor Mabel couldn't sleep after all that excitement. If you asked her about he Zoo and what she saw she'd tell you "Lama lay down." She also would tell you "Big mineau!" the big cats and "Big Bear!" She is too cute!

Saturday was fun too! We went to Mabel's first real friend birthday party. Mabel's little playmate turned one on Saturday. It was a beautiful day and they had a nice party out in their back yard. Mabel ate yummy food, played with the balloons, counted the balloons, talked about the balloons and played on the swing set and in the grass. The birthday boy needed his nap around one and Mabel was done then too! I have to say that having a summer birthday is so much more fun than a winter birthday. My birthday is in the winter and my brother's in the summer. I remember hating that growing up! He had all these great birthdays at our camp where we could swim and mine? It would snow and I couldn't have friends over or I had to go to school. I'm afraid that Mabel too will have to endure that, I just hope our next child has a winter birthday too, that way neither can feel slighted. We have decided for Mabel's sake to have her "half birthday" celebration in June so she can at least have the summer birhday experience a little bit! Man I would have loved that!

It has been a crazy week, but aren't they all? Mabel also has taken to saying her full name! First middle and last. I know I go on, but she's a genius!