BIG

Since when did Gigi get so big? I looked at her tonight in the bathtub, with her hair slicked down and no ringlets framing her face, and it struck me how old she is beginning to look. She is coming up on 18 months on October 10th, and I will have plenty of updates then, but I figure tonight is as good a night as any to tell you a little bit about what is going on in her life. If I wait another few weeks and do it all at once, it will be a VERY long post. She is just a busy little gal.


I love how these photos both look as if she took them, and did a little self-portrait session. As if I would just hand over my camera to a toddler sitting in a bathtub...


I think I'll tell you a little bit about the physical element of her life, and do chapters on her social, intellectual, etc. elements later.

Gross Motor

Gigi is definitely at the stage where her physical capacity is far more advanced than her ability to reason. Little did you know that another purpose of those bangs is to cover up all of the bruises and cuts, etc. that she gets from her adventures! Just this past weekend she took two pretty bad spills: both times because she figured out how to turn her toys upside down or sideways to make herself a higher platform from which she could see new things on our shelves. (I feel like I'm watching a cave woman sometimes... she manipulates her tools for such new and exciting purposes). The first time she turned a plastic bucket upside down and stepped up on top, and ended up flat on her back with the bucket broken in five pieces under her, and the second time she just brought down the entire toy shelf on top of her. She's fine now, but that second fall in three days motivated us to consider a whole new level of kiddo-proofing in this house. She's decided to be a climber.

But she also dances, and runs, and waves, and high 5s and "pounds" (fist to fist), and climbs safely up and down the stairs, and spins in circles. She climbs up on couches, but doesn't do as well on large rocks or with uneven ground. We're okay with that.

Fine Motor

In the last few weeks, Gigi's fine motor skills have really improved. Her two new things are eating with a spoon (although sometimes she prefers to hold the spoon in one hand and use the other as a shovel to scoop the food into her mouth), and coloring, which for some reason she calls "yellow". Last weekend we had a chance to visit the Prouses in SC for little Matthew's baby blessing, and Gigi sat at their little red table and became very serious with her scribbling. She is very forgiving with our endless sorry sketches of hats, animals, people, etc. She is kind enough to label them properly even when they don't much resemble what we are trying to draw. She loves her collection of colored pencils and one of her first clear requests (out of the context of eating and other basic needs) has been "Mamãe! Ajuda!" (Mommy, help!) as she points to the drawer where her pencils are kept. Her scribbles are becoming more intense and colorful, and she's only drawn on the wall twice. When I am upstairs in the hallway and hear her downstairs saying "No! Gigi!", I know that she is wagging her finger at the wall where she has left her marks.

And probably adding another little squiggle, knowing her.