Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Talia, at almost 11 months old, is a distinct joy to all of us here in the Rodriquez household. Even Benjamin exuberantly shouts, "Ya Ya!" when she and I come to retrieve him from his bed after his afternoon nap.

I recently read that babies Talia's age are "dedicated wriggler[s] and squirmer[s]." This would certainly describe our baby girl. Her feet, especially, are in constant motion, whether in her crib, bath, or highchair. She vocalizes quite a bit, as well. She shouts to attract attention, screams in anger, and babbles loudly and tunefully in long strings of syllables. And what a delightful laugh!

Tali is not yet among the majority of babies her age who are utilizing some method or another of deliberate movement to change location. She's just not interested in crawling, whatsoever! She will happily sit for quite some time, exactly where you leave her. We have, however, as of yesterday, reached another long-awaited milestone. Tali now has two newly-cut bottom front teeth (her first)!

Books are among her favorite play things. She adores sitting, surrounded by a mountain of board books, turning pages, which may or may not be right-side-up. She also loves her new baby dolls and wiggles like a puppy dog whenever I bring one out for her to play with. They are often the recipients of repeated wide-mouthed, wet kisses.

We are experiencing a bit of good ol' sibling rivalry already. Talia always wants what Benjamin has (even if she has a pile of 6 sitting right next to her) and whenever I sit her down to play, suddenly everything is Benjamin's "special" possession. Any book she wants is his most treasured book, any toy is suddenly the object of his most focused attention. Most of the time, though, they are making each other laugh, squeal, and shriek. Either that or they are blowing spirited raspberries at one another.