new tricks

nissa is always full of new tricks. here are some of the latest.

i was holding nissa on my hip when she seemed to say "hey!" she pushed my cheek to put us face to face and planted a bit ol' kiss on my lips! it was crazy. she then carried on with whatever babbling she was doing. wonder if that will continue?

i'm pleased to say that walking is now her preferred mode of transportation. sure, she'll crawl on occasion, but usually only if she's tired. if she stumbles, she is getting right back up (rather efficiently now), when before she might resort to crawling the rest of the way. with all the practice she's getting in, i'm sure she'll be a pro walker in no time at all.

in an effort to include nissa in the conversation, i put my dad on speaker phone with my cell. it worked out great because usually when you put the phone up to nissa's ear and she hears the other person, she just pulls the phone away to look at it and giggles. cute as that is, it's not that exciting for the other end. the speakerphone, however, was fascinating for her and she really had a lot more to say. the best part was that she really favored yelling at the speaker phone, like a grandma trying to use it, not familiar with the technology. she'd lean over and shout right at it, then back away until she had something else to say. it was hilarious to watch.

when i got nissa up one morning, i was wearing my bulls t shirt from '91. yep, first of many world championships! and i could even name the starting line up. i was impressed with myself. so, in typical nissa fashion, she pointed at the items on my shirt and said something. so i took that opportunity to introduce her to the '91 starting line up. . . when she pointed out the chicago bulls logo, i said "bull." and the crazy thing that happened next was that she seemed to try to imitate what i said. we went back and forth 3-4 times and she was actually trying to perfect her pronunciation! it was really exciting to see her trying to improve her speaking and was neat to watch. i guess that means we'll be getting a lot more words from her soon?

in a vain effort to instill some good oral hygiene practices, we've begun brushing teeth before nissa's bedtime. so her routine is now to kiss daddy good night, crawl upstairs herself, then into the bathroom upstairs where i'll brush her teeth (all 8 of them!!), we change her diaper and into pjs, nurse and to bed. but the funniest thing about this new habit is nissa's new word- "TEETH"! when we get up into the bathroom, she'll say "teeth, teeth" and it's super cute. she'll say it again when we're done and smile big in the mirror. after we wave good bye to the tooth brush in the vanity, of course.

while eating dinner together recently, nissa insisted on ripping off her bib. i tried to put it back on, but she pulled it off again. adam suggested taking her plate away and telling her the bib being off means she's done with dinner. it seemed a little far fetched for me, but i tried it. she was content to sit there at the table for a few minutes, but soon she wanted her plate again and told her about the bib, so she picked it up to try and put it back on. with a little help from me, she was bibbed again and finishing up her dinner. amazing.

not that this is all that note worthy, but nissa peed in the bath for the first time. it was crazy because it was really easy to see and lingered for a while. it's hard to believe that that was the first time that's happened, but it's true! i tried to make the rest of her bath go quickly after that. the bath was still mostly water, but it icked me out. what can i say?