beautiful baby

We are in the middle of enjoying a marvellous visit with Ash, Turner and Sloane. As a result my postings are a little few and far between, but are we ever having a good time.

Sloane is - bar none - just about the greatest baby I've ever met. Ji is my son and of course nobody could ever top him in terms of how much I love him, but Sloane is like the ideal baby. She's incredible. I've known her almost, what, 10 months now, and I have yet to think to myself "yikes, make that crying stop!". I think that's pretty incredible for a baby. Sloane is such a cheerful and alert and good-natured girl that the worst I've ever seen is her getting frustrated cause she's in bed but not ready to sleep yet. She's never made strange (with anyone that I've seen), she's never freaked out because she didn't get her way, she's never had a heat-induced melt-down, which is pretty incredible given how hot it was at the weekend market last weekend, and she eats basically anything. She's a marvel in diapers.

And she's not dumb-sweet, she's damn-smart-sweet. Like, she is constantly paying full attention to the people around her. She engages fully with all the folks who wave to her on the streets or who pat her on the subway. She natters and chats very specifically according to the situation. Her favourite phrase these days is "Whazzat, whazzat..." and she'll point at things she's interested and repeat that just enough times to get a proper response and full explanation. She can also figure things out super fast. I showed her how some wooden screws screwed on and off of one of Ji's monster trucks, and she had the 'turney turney' motion down flat in a matter of moments. She has also learned in the past few days that applause is a sign of appreciation. Yesterday Ash and I spent about 15 minutes applauding Sloane for her ability to spin around a little plastic disk, and Sloane got to the point where she'd spin it, watch us clap, clap herself, and then look back and forth to each of us to assess how much we were clapping, and then she'd give a HUGE grin to show how pleased she was with the whole situation.

And not only all of this, but when Phet or I come home, Sloane reaches out for 'uppies' so that we'll lift her up and give her a hug.

Adorable! The Bristowe-Turners ought to rent this child out for people needing a dose of baby love. They could make BAZILLIONS. [Balzac-19-January-2006]