Waving & Wet Kisses

Both our girls have become pros at waving. They have no biases: waves to mommy, daddy, family on skype, the kitty cats, reflections in the mirror, characters on Days of Our Lives...they are just happy to see everyone! They also know to wave when someone says "Hi", "Hello", or "Hey". It is quite cute when I yell "Hey!" at the cats for doing something bad and the girls just start waving like crazy. But they are very conservative with their goodbye waves. They have to be confident the person departing will promptly return. They still refuse to wave bye bye to their daddy when he leaves for work, but there is a flurry of baby smiles and hand flapping upon his return.

Avery has a very solid side to side hand motion for her wave. Alina does a very limp up and down motion. Honestly, though, they are all just variation of the original 'bang, bang' motion they first learned months ago. So one has to be careful not to get too close to their waving hand or it will quickly turn into a barrage of knocks on the head! Their passion for waving has started to infiltrate the earlier learned skill of hi-five.

Alina has also learned how to give and ask for kisses. Of course, to her, a kiss means mouth wide open, tongue hanging out, and drool dripping down her chin. If the mood strikes, she will give a sweet kiss when prompted. She then will burst out with a giant, wrinkle-nosed smile and/or giggle. After that, she may or may not ask you for another kiss by leaning in close and puckering up her wet, open lips.

They are developing new skills almost daily, from clacking to stacking blocks. I am so fortunate to be witness to the early stages of their life-long process of learning.