Just stuff.

I am still amazed at how much my daughter eats, and how she will eat just about anything. Last night, I gave her some peas for the first time in a really long time. The last time she ate peas, she was 7 months, and threw them all up after eating them (these were from a baby jar). Whatever that problem was, she is apparently over it, because she had 3 helpings of peas last night. I finally told her she had to eat the rest of her food if she wanted more vegetables. She loves peas!

I took Lara shopping with me today, and we went all over town. The mall in Bloomington is not nearly as fun as the mall in Champaign. Nontheless, it has been forever since I have mall-shopped, and Lara and I strolled in and out of a lot of stores, just passing the time. I considered buying her a pair of jeans from Gap (Baby), but Lara shook her head "NO" quite violently when I showed them to her and had a very disgusted look on her face. Instead, she insisted on looking at a pair of pink corduroys. But I did not like those, so we ended up leaving, having not come to an agreement.

The truth is, I don't like putting Lara in jeans or dresses too often because they are very constricting. Especially for my daughter, it is very important that she has an easy time of getting around. A sweater and leggings is a typical every day outfit for Lara.

Lara is getting really good at using her push toy and walking around the house. Our house is small, so she goes about 4 feet and inevitably hits a wall. Her balance is the toughest thing at this point to master, so steering takes a little more coordination than she can give right now.

Lara still very much loves looking at her books, which seems to amaze a lot of people (I wouldn't know any differently). She turns the pages very carefully, will point to the pictures, and talk. She has a book shelf in her room, and we will often find all her books strewn all over the floor, with her sitting right in the middle, quietly flipping through each one in turn.

Lara recently had 2 new teeth come in. I'm not sure exactly when they popped through, because, well, while the first 3 teeth were exciting, I have since given up on keeping track thoroughly. This brings her to a grand total of 7 teeth. She has been putting things in her mouth again a lot lately. She hadn't been doing that for awhile, so I thought we were over that. Here she is eating Baby Jesus from her Nativity set.