When she finds herself a bit bored, particularly when she's riding in the car but has already thrown all her toys out of reach, Abby occupies her free time by blowing spit bubbles. These are giant bubbles. While she may have discovered this talent accidentally, she now does it very much on purpose. Since I still have her carseat facing the rear, I can't see her while we're riding. But we've learned the distinctive grunt patterns of her spit bubbles and can tell when she's up to this trick. Sure it's a little gross and it won't be a skill that can be developed to pad the college application down the road, but it's pretty entertaining for all of us right now.
Abby has gotten interested in dolls. For quite a while, she has had a little soft doll named Baby Lee (it's a silly story) that she sleeps with, talks to in the morning when she wakes up, and carries around by the hood. Lee's face is missing a few pieces of plastic where Abby has bitten her. Abby also rescues Lee from the crib by reaching through the slats and pulling her out. The first picture below also shows the end of one of Abby's latest skills. She can now get up on her feet by sticking her bottom up in the air first instead of having to pull up on something.
Abby's nurturing side is emerging, but these things take time. For example, she does try to put the bottle in her new doll's mouth but she also puts the doll's bottle in her mouth. She will hug the doll sometimes, but routinely carries her by the hair. She doesn't just happen to grab the doll by the hair; she purposely looks for the hair before she picks her up. Maybe she likes how the hair feels on her hand??
Abby went through a few weeks of using her doll stroller or her other push toy as her constant mode of transportation. This was right around the time she was learning to walk but still needed help balancing. She was a speed demon, flying through the house. We had two very annoying days when Abby knew how to push the toys but did not know how to turn them if she encountered an obstacle. She would screech for help every few seconds when she got stuck. Thankfully, she quickly learned to steer. She did not steer like you or I would steer. She would basically pick up the toy and sling it in the direction she wanted to move. Very funny and typical Abby to employ brute force as a problem solving strategy. I didn't realize how short-lived this phase would be and regret not taking much video of her zooming around behind the push toys.
Thanks to her experience with her two push toys, Abby now thinks anything that is light enough for her to manuever is a push toy. She loves to drag out my kitchen step stool and push it around the kitchen. The noise it makes on the vinyl flooring is nervewracking for adults but apparently very appealing to a toddler.
One of my favorite developments is Abby's increasing interest in being social and showing affection. She likes to be tickled on her tummy, so she has started trying to tickle us. When we lay her on the changing table and one of our shirts is untucked, she will often pull the shirt up slightly to "tickle" us on the tummy and wait for our reaction. She also does this when we lay in the floor sometimes. She will say something like "titel, titel" as she does this. My heart just melts.
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