Fetching her own diapers, pointing at body parts, and saying hiiiiiiiiiiii

Daphne is now 20 months old. I feel horrible for not updating this more.

She can now get her own diapers. When we wake up in the morning, I say to her, "Diaper, Daphne, go get a diapie!" She runs to the closet where I keep them, grabs one, and returns to me.

When prompted, she can point out her head, her nose, her feet, and her belly.

She can also feign sleep and snoring.

We play this game where she pretends she's sleeping, and I'm trying to wake her up. She gets a REALLY big kick out of it. Her eyes are clamped shut, but she has this big grin on her face. She pretends that my efforts to awaken her are futile. It's sooooooooooo hilarious.

When we were at the drug store the other day, there was this young woman walking around with her cell phone. Daphne kept following her around, and when the woman would briefly pause, Daphne would stop and stand RIGHT next to her leg, look up at her, smile and say, "HiiiiiiiiiiIIiiiIII." She did this over and over again.

The lady looked really annoyed. Hahaha, it was really hilarious. She looked like a freshman at the University.

Daphne scoffs at crawling, her first time at the Getty & a playground

Only after a little more than a month, Daphne is already a full-fledged walker. She refused to crawl unless when she's rushing at something (like the bathroom, for example, when the door is ajar and she spots us going towards it with the intent to close it from the corner of her eye) and she knows she won't be able to reach it even if she walked her fastest.

I took her to the park for the first time. And I totally forgot to bring along the camera (jeez, you'd think that will all the time I took researching to find the perfect videorecorder and the money I spent on it, I'd use it more often, huh). How was I supposed to know who excited she'd be? How was I supposed to know how cute she'd look walking towards other children, trying to engage them with her limited vocabulary of grunts and squeals? How would I know that she would learn how to take her first step UP during her first park visit? I should have known. Jeez. Well, yes, she did all that and more. She loves walking. I love that she loves walking. She's amazing. It was actually after this first playground visit that she decided to never crawl again (except when lunging towards an open bathroom).

This past weekend, Emmanuel, Daphne, Grace, Genevieve (Emmanuel's sister), and I went to the Getty. They had an exhibition on Courbet which none of us really had any interest in, except, maybe Grace. Emmanuel indulged his love of impressionist and baroque paintings, while I just ate everything up. I was really touched when observing Emmanuel explain things to his sister. He's so patient and thorough and kind. He explained about every single thing we saw to her--from ancient manuscipts to Rococo furniture. It was endearing. I could imagine him doing the same things with Daphne one day. Grace kept whispering, "There are naked people," whenever we happened upon a nude painting and sculpture. It was pretty funny.

Daphne is very friendly and good-natured. She hardly ever cries or whines. She has actually begun to sort of whining, especially for things that she really shouldn't be playing with or eating, but I am firm. After about 3 seconds of her faux crying, her attention is usually diverted elsewhere. I don't know the cause of her good-naturedness. It could be in her genes. Who knows. I'd like to think it's the way I've raised her thus far. I've tried to make sure to stop everything I'm doing, within reason, to fulfill her necessary baby-needs. If she wants to breastfeed, I will quickly comply. If she wants to be held, I will hold her. I made sure that I held her as much as could when she was an infant. For about 3 months, it seemed to be the only thing I was doing. I'd wake up, put her in the NoJo and sway. Either that or plop her on a pillow on my lap and let her nurse. It's really hard those first couple of months. Just all a blur. Especially difficult when one does not know what to expect. I feel like now that I know what to expect, I could do it all with my eyes closed and my hands tied behind my back. It's really hard. I do remember telling myself when I felt like I couldn't take anymore baby-slinging or breastfeeding that I'd thank myself for it one day. For some reason, I knew deep-down inside, Daphne needed to be held nonstop. To not hold her, to not keep her close to me as much as I did would have been unnatural. She was encapsulated in my womb for 9 months, how could she immediately go from that to sleeping alone, being allowed to lay by heself for hours at a time or being fed through a hard, inanimate plastic nipple with milk meant for a calf?

So this is all. Forgive me, readers. I've been very delinquent in my posting. Forgive me, future adult Daphne--I have been very busy trying to engage you.

'Til next post.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Daphne's first steps!!!

Daphne took her first, independent steps today!!!!!!! She saw Lucie walking towards her, and so Daphne tried and successfully took two steps towards Lucie!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!

KDJFAOWIERJOAWIJEKFAOWJROAWEJKFDKLJAOIERKJFOJWOIER! How exciting!!! I wish I could have videotaped it.

She knows how to dance now!!!

I've taught Daphne how to dance! I had been noticing that she goes up and down on her tippy toes when music is playing and had been wondering if it was because she was trying to move to the music. So I decided to show her how to move her hips and torso around by having her stand up and moving them for her. I did this while chanting, "Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance." We took a break and a little while later, I started to chant "dance" again, and lo and behold!!!! She started to shake her little baby booty!!!!!!!!!! HEhehehehe, she is soooooooooooo adorable!!!

Also, today while Emmanuel and I were playing with her, she figured out that allowing herself to fall back onto pillows is much fun!! So she kept doing this over and over and over again. She'd roll over after she allowed herself to fall back, and repeat. She thought it was HILARIOUS. I was going to video tape it, but everytime I bring out the camcorder she want to play with it.

Almost a Year Old--Can Clap and "Close-Open"

Daphne is 11 months old now! Wow! She is such a communicator! She has learned to clap her hands. It started when I took her arms in my hands and clapped them for her, and ever since then, she's been doing it independently. I was very surprised when she started to do it herself after I had let go. She started to independently opening and closing her fists repeatedly after only a few times I demonstrated for her, too. She points to things, and when she's angry, she vehemently says, "Da da da da!!!," as if she were trying to scold us! She's beautiful! Here's a picture of her and her daddy on her Baptism.

Latest Update--Baptism, Four Teeth, and More

Daphne was baptized on Saturday, January 7, 2005. My dad cooked for it. There was Mechado, Bopis, Chicken Curry, and Beef Stew. The Mechado was gone by the end of the baptism and the Beef Stew was practically gone (only one piece of meat and some veggies left)!! He also made lime dessert. My mom helped set up everything and basically took care of everything in the morning. Emmanuel's Grandma Lucille baked white chocolate cookies and coconut cookies. Very delicious! Emmanuel's Grandma Estrella brought a Tres Leches cake with mocha with walnut filling. It was extremely good. Grandpa Steve made barbecue chicken which was gobbled up, too.

Daphne received many great gifts!! Thanks to everyone who came! I will be posting pictures as soon as Eman gets the server working! Ahh! When will that be?!

Daphne Jade now has four teeth--two teeth on the bottom and her two front teeth on the top. She's always smiling and laughing! She's interested in everything and can even stand up by herself, unsupported, for a substatial amount of time! No walking yet, though! More updates later. Sorry it took so long!

Oh yeah, I will be planning her first birthday, soon!! I'll keep everyone updated!