Sporty Girl

Here's a sweet girl who really enjoys being outside.

Also, today, happy birthday, Mama!

Quick Pics

Someone is ready for her closeup, Mr. DeMille.

Time to snuggle with Mama on the couch.

Jaunty girl enjoys her new hat and sandals at the park on a wonderful Saturday afternoon.

Houseguests!

This week, Mama's Texas friends John and Brenda stopped by for an "unannounced" visit. You would not believe how surprised Mama was! (Daddy had planned this all out with John and Brenda, because he is mischievous.) So, with guests in town, Tickle Buglet had a chance to show off her favorite places. Of course, this included a trip to the aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola, but quite a few delicious restaurants were on the itinerary as well, since Baby Girl is a nascent foodie.

Sweet Girl shows off her latest creation, a device made out of blocks that enables a Little Monster to run around the house. Some say this is a redundant device, but Baby Girl knows it's just a prototype at this point.

A visit to Grant Park. Little Werewolf shows off the bucket hat she wore a year ago when she was still an infant (and the hat still fit, sort of...).

Hugs and kisses for the polar bear at World of Coca-Cola. Sweet Goblin saw the bear across the foyer and pointed him out and started making kissing noises, so Mama knew that Little Monster wanted to pay him a special visit.

The aquarium is always one of Sweet Girl's favorite places. This time, she spent most of her visit out of her stroller, running from exhibit to exhibit and chasing the fish in their tanks.

Booger Bug is Hungry

We really must apologize for the paucity of posts here in Baby Girl's blog. It's just been so busy with Mama working two jobs in transition, Daddy on a large project at his job, and Little Monster having an icky cold that she's been getting over.

That said, what an appetite this little critter has! It was on the wane with her cold, but now that she's well again, she wakes up with ideas like "Eat!" and "Cook!" in mind. Who can blame her? There's always something good to eat around the house. Just tonight she did cleaned her plate completely, having a hot dog, some olives, some cheese, and applesauce, all of which she ate all by herself. She may still be a bit boogery, but she's definitely a hungry Little Werewolf!

It's always good times for Tickle Bug, too. She loves to have her picture taken, as you can see, and she'll ham it up for the camera if she thinks Daddy's going to send a picture to Mama or if she's going to have her picture on the web. She especially likes to look at pictures of herself, both on the camera and on the computer. If there's a chance she'll be able to watch "Baby," as she calls herself when she sees her picture, she'll put on a real show.

Always On the Go

It's been very busy around here. With Mama starting at her new restaurant and Daddy working on the first iteration of an enormous project at work, both feel like they don't see each other and time with Tickle Bug is at a premium.

This weekend, Mama went to Savannah for a bachelorette party while Daddy stayed home with Sweet Girl. On Friday, Daddy and Madeleine went to Mama's restaurant (even though she wasn't there) to see how the place had changed and to meet up with Madeleine's friend Oliver as well as Daddy's friends Joddie, Eric, and Nicole. Little Monster ate several handfuls of tater tots, and then also weaseled her way into some of Oliver's fruit bar. After that, she dashed back and forth across the booth seat and climbed on Daddy like he was a jungle gym.

Speaking of jungle gyms, on Saturday, Little Werewolf went to the playground at Peachtree-Dekalb Airport, where she met up with Oliver, Kasper, and Spencer. After some serious playing (involving climbing up on the big slide in the center and making Daddy chase her), Baby Girl retired to the restaurant on the deck, where she watched the jets and small-prop planes take off and ate a grilled cheese sandwich. Spencer gave her a flower, which she sniffed and put behind her ear — such a sweet girl!

Snowstorm!

They say the East Coast has been pummeled by wintry weather. Well, we haven't seen much of it, but we did have a surprise visit from Old Man Winter yesterday afternoon. Snow started falling about one o'clock and didn't let up until the wee hours of the morning. Mama had a day shift, so Daddy took the opportunity to work from home with Miss Fuss in his keeping. She was certainly excited about the day, so much so that she took off her shoes and socks in the car, just to spite him. After all, it's not like you can quickly get in and out of the car when you have to put a Tickle Bug's shows and socks on at every stop.

Even when it was dark last night, it was very bright, as the blanket of white reflected all the light from everywhere. Even when the house woke up this morning, the snow still pretended to be a winter wonderland. While Mama got ready to go see a family friend this afternoon, Daddy and Baby Girl horsed around in the back yard, making little snow castles and teasing the cat with snowballs.

The snow didn't last long, however. Even now, it's mostly gone, leaving only muddy residue and the sheepish impression among Atlantans of this being some kind of snowpocalypse. Daddy's office was supposed to have a party last night, but it was canceled, so Tickle Bug had an evening at home with both Mama and Daddy instead of spending it with the babysitter as originally planned. Still, even with the night in, it's been a busy week for Little Werewolf, who went to a Super Bowl party on Sunday and has been fighting off a cold. Don't worry, friends and family; Sweet Girl was bundled up and much better before playing in the snow.

A Girl for All Seasons

The life of a Baby Girl is action-packed! It's an adventure of tasting new foods, playing in new playgrounds, scowling when it's too cold to go outside, and whooping it up when it's warm enough to play outside. For example, one of Sweet Girl's favorite new foods is the humble olive, which she wastes no time placing on her finger and popping into her mouth, as all kids do. Still, finding out how to do this is an exercise in applied Tickle Bug world observation, so it's neat to see in action.

Another part of the adventure is creative re-purposing of toys, as with Little Monster's tent (or "nunt" in her patois). A tent isn't always a tent — sometimes it's a Daddy-trap, sometimes it's a reading room, and sometimes it's a dinosaur ranch. Sometimes a tent is its own sleeping bag, or some sort of bizarre hamster-wheel type of perpetual motion machine. In this regard, Sweet Girl is less like a baby girl and more like a mad scientist. This week, Daddy had a half-day at work on Wednesday, so he spent the afternoon strolling with Little Werewolf in her wagon and even let her pick the direction of the route she wanted to take.

And then, of course, are the habits she picks up from her parents. After a hard day of adventures, Wee Goblin likes to take a book to bed and read until she falls asleep. Hop On Pop remains a crib favorite, but Tickle Bug is ever on the prowl for more books to sate her voracious reading appetites. And though she's not yet really reading, she retains a lot of her read-aloud book sequences, so she can recite the pages to you when you help her read them. She's quite the continental, in fact, and can often be found engrossed in her book after a meal at a restaurant or in the waning hours before bedtime.