She took her first steps on November 14th.

A month and a half later I’m here to talk about it.

The big garage project continues to monopolize my time, but a recent milestone (finishing insulation!) has allowed me to sit back down at my favorite local coffee shop for an update.

As mentioned, she took three steps! Luckily for Mama, it happened while she was home. Luckily for our friends Stephen and Katelyn, it happened while they were visiting for dinner. Their first baby comes in several months and we’ve done a real good job over the years giving them a glimpse into nothing but the good stuff of having babies.

Back to little miss Papaya. If I were writing this back in November, I’d be talking about how she knows the names of everything above the neck like teeth, eyes, noes, ears, hair, but for some reason she calls the head a bowl. The conversation goes something like this:

Papaya, pointing to eyes: Eyes!

Me: Yeah, eyes!

Papaya, pointing to nose: Nose!

Me: Yeah, nose!

Papaya, pointing to head: Bowl!

Me, pointing to my head: Head!

Papaya, acting as if I just confirmed that it’s called a bowl: Bowl!

But it’s not November anymore and she now says head. If I were writing this back in November, I’d be talking about how she still calls Nashi “brother.” But I’m not, and now she calls him by his actual name. Often times she’ll call out for him right when she wakes up in the morning because she loves him very much. We still try, with mixed results, to make sure Nashi is gentle with her, but she seems to love all the play and attention from him no matter what. Unless he’s taking something away from her. Which he does. A lot. It’s actually what he does most with her.

If I were writing this back in November, I’d be talking about how she says “mope” when she wants milk and/or Mama. But I’m not, and now she says “mulk” for milk and “mama” for Mama. She’s still a total mama’s girl and generally prefers her all the time. But she allows me to take care of her whenever Mama’s gone. She still makes it clear when she’s unhappy, which isn’t too often, but when it happens it goes from zero to sixty immediately no matter what the issue. If I pick her up when she’s upset she’ll either do this back arching dolphin move to try and get away or she’ll repeatedly attempt to head butt me. If she has freedom while upset, she’ll try and head butt anything that’s closest, which tends to be the floor.

Next post will be Nashi’s turn.