Kate's language keeps exploding, and she now will repeat words like a mynah bird. Today I said I was starving, and Kate repeated, "Starving." She said it several times, in fact, to make sure we knew she was saying it.
Today Kate decided to imitate the gorillas and monkeys at the zoo by climbing into her high chair. I was cooking dinner, and she was busily playing with her toys in the living room. Suddenly, I heard mini-applause, looked up, and there she was sitting in her high chair. For a second I thought my mommy brain had forgotten to take her out after her snack, then I realized the applause meant she was proud of herself for accomplishing her goal. I took her out and sent her back to playing.
While she didn't quite make it to the window and poke her little head out to declare ".. she's not gonna take it anymore!", our little Katherine made a big decision on Election Day.
Crawling is out, walking is in. The pink state swept the board.
While she's been standing with fingers for a year, and walking with a finger six months, she never wanted to let that finger go. Without an affectionate chaperone, she'd always revert to either crawling or cruising (or whirrrrring around on her little plastic Zimmerframe).
Over the weekend we did some walking practice, having her toddle between her doting parents (with lots of cheering). By the time Election Day rolled around, the choice was easy.
When she got to French class, she stood up and started toddling like everyone else, with a big goofy grin, a crazy Frankenstein stride, and lots of giggles.
Within three days, Kate could walk all the way home from the Subway (2 avenue blocks), and still have enough energy to run rings around the cats for a couple of hours. Sunday she went to the Natural History museum and walked all around, with several return trips through the great hall of African animals to visit the lions ("Raarrr") and the gorillas.