In the First Place

I am practically EXPLODING with firsts! Last Thursday in particular, I was out of control with firsts:

• First Tortilla Chip, at the westside Mi Pueblo - I've been studying the big people eating them for months, but I finally got my own when Mommy and I had lunch together, and I knew exactly what to do. I'm going to wait a little longer before I try salsa.
• First Drink From A Straw, also at Mi Pueblo - Daddy and Mommy have offered me drinks from straws before, but I couldn't quite figure out what the deal was. This time, I watched Mommy drink from her straw, and then she offered me one, and I made it work. I love drinking like the big people!
• First Deliberate Clap - I'm not sure exactly what day I first did it - it was late last week - but by the weekend, I was a cheering maniac. On Saturday, I even started saying "Yea!" when I clapped (my "Yea!" sounds sort of like "aaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy" but my inflection makes my intentions clear).
• First Standing Alone, at home in the OK Corral - I was playing in my corral in the living room while Mommy was working in the kitchen, and I pulled up to standing, which I do once or twice a day now. Once I got up, though, I couldn't figure out how to get down, and I yelled for Mommy to come rescue me. When I saw her, I was so excited I let go of the corral, and for a couple of seconds, I was thrilled with myself. And then I lost my balance and fell over like, well, a felled tree. The look on my face demonstrated just how scary at was, but Mommy picked me up and comforted me and told me how proud she was of me, and about 30 seconds later I was ready to play again.

There are more firsts, but I can't remember them all right now. I know, I know - I need to post them here as they happen. I'll try to do better.

One cool thing I've gradually been doing more of lately is singing. I've been singing along to the radio in the car for the last few weeks - especially to the harder stuff, I guess because metal singers and I sort of share the same vocal style - but I've started to sing along with Mommy and Daddy last week and this one, too. One of my favorite songs is "Mary Had a Little Lamb," some of which I have actually sung, note for note, after Mommy sings a line of it (although I'm still working on the lyrics part - I mostly sing "baa baa baa" to all the songs). I also like to sing along to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," "The ABC Song," and "Baa, Baa Black Sheep" (same tune to all three, just different lyrics) - I haven't quite gotten the tune down, but I work hard at it - and especially to "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," which has been a favorite since Nonna began singing it to me when I was just a couple of weeks old. I especially like to sing the EIEIO part ("eeyah eeyah ahhhhhhhh"). Considering my singing skills, my love of banging on keyboards, and my propensity to turn everything into a drum, I may have a future in music.

Moving on to my recent outings: I enjoyed a morning of hard playing with Cousin Bailey, Aunt Terry and Grandma T last week, and I got to hang out with Bailey again Friday at my Oma's house, where I also got to see Aunt Barb. I went shopping with my Nonna and Mommy Saturday, and I got to play in the play pit at Great Northern Mall for the first time ever (there's one of those firsts!). I had dinner at My Friends Deli Saturday night with Uncle Jon, Nonna and my parents, and Sunday I had my first (another one!) ever DONUT, which was so good I rubbed it all over me from head to toe!!! Sunday afternoon I got to hang out with Daddy all by myself, and we went to Home Depot and did other manly things. Monday I ate my first (!) ever pizza roll, which was pretty good, I have to tell you. Last night, we went to Lozada's and I had my first empanada - delicioso!

Today was pretty exciting: I went to Jesse Kramer's photography studio in Lakewood and had my first birthday portrait made. Jesse was really nice; he got down on the floor with me and took a bunch of pictures and let me crawl all over his studio. After I started to get tired, my parents looked at some of the pictures of me and thought I was pretty good looking in them. They will have the digital proofs back in a couple of days, and I'll post some of them here so you can see for yourself how fabulous I am.

Tonight we met Maggie and her mom and dad (Sara and Matt) at the Rocky River marina for a picnic. I ate broccolini, tofu, green beans, eggplant, rice, french bread, and fresh peaches, and it was all so yummy that I couldn't eat it fast enough. After dinner, Maggie and I got to swing, which has become one of my favorite things to do - I love to feel the wind in my hair! - and Maggie enjoyed her first time on the big kid swings.

I'm off to sleep now. I've been sleeping 11-12+ hours per night lately. Hey - it takes a good amount of sleep to plan all the new things I'm going to do! Don't let the bed bugs bite...