go baby, go!

It seems that right after I hit "publish" on a monthly update post, Iris starts doing all sorts of crazy new things. During lunch today, I decided to hand her the spoon I was feeding her with to see what she would do with it. And what do you know... she immediately scooped up some applesauce with the spoon and put it in her mouth! She ate the entire container all by herself, re-positioning the spoon in her hand as needed. She continued feeding herself chucks of avocado until she was "duh," or in other words, "all done!"  She didn't even make a mess, just gave herself an apple sauce beard. I was so surprised and impressed to watch her. Less than three months ago, she didn't even eat solid foods! I wish I had been able to capture it for Marius, but I didn't want to break her stride. Hopefully I can catch it tomorrow.

On top of the cutlery revelation, her word pronunciation has improved greatly in just the last day. She now says words like: boo, go, pee pee, ergo, and meow very clearly. I recently started playing the "stop and go game" with her, so she says "go!" about everything she's doing! She also knows that when we gets near the street outside, to beckon me to pick her up to cross. She has started grabbing my hand and leading me places, too! She knows that her ears are for listening (though she still puts the phone behind her head instead of against her ear, which is pretty cute) and her nose is for smelling. Two days ago, she learned how a zipper works and now zips and unzips my sweatshirt constantly. She also heard a crow outside recently and instantly replied to him, "caw caw!"

Tonight, she followed the kitty around the room saying, "meow meow meow!" She was watching part of Toy Story 3 as I made dinner and started copying the clapping, running and arm flailing of the characters! It really blows my mind how quickly she has starting picking up on things.

Reaching for her glowing gingerbread ornament that I got her at Kohl's last week. She carries it everywhere and has dubbed it "Moo!"

"Oh joy! I love you Moo!"

"I have kisses for you!"