Because She Doesn't Have a Baby Book...

...the milestones Moriah reaches--big and small--get jotted down here.

Or else they get lost.

(I hate when they get lost.)

Don't feel too sorry for Moriah though, because she doesn't have a baby book.  I'm quite sure that, even without one, she has more recorded about these first years of her life than her big brother Josiah, who is the proud owner of a filled-out baby book, does.  ;-)

But back to the milestones...

 About a week ago, Moriah set the table for the first time.  And by set the table, I mean she, completely of her own volition, went to the silverware drawer, opened it, reached around inside until she succeeded in grabbing some spoons (she's not tall enough to see in the drawer yet, so she was reaching blindly), went around the table, and put a spoon on everyone's plate.  Well, almost everyone's.  I think someone ended up with two spoons on his or her plate, and someone was lacking even one.  But most of us got a spoon.  :)

Seeing how much Moriah was enjoying that, I got some forks out of the drawer and gave them to her to do likewise.  She had about the same amount of success with the forks as she did with the spoons.  :)

The knives took a little more coaching, because not everyone gets one.  But when I gave Moriah a knife and told her to put it on Grandpa's plate, for example, she did pretty well with that.

In case you're wondering, we normally don't set the table by putting the utensils on the plates; but when I saw Moriah begin that way with the spoons, I didn't figure it was worthwhile to bother with "forks on the left, knives and spoons on the right" yet.  We'll tackle that another day.  :)

One thing that often stands out to me about my little girl is how quick she is to learn by watching.  She often imitates me, even in areas that I've never given her a bit of verbal instruction.  She sees, and does, and it's almost always a delight.  But I do have to be even more careful about what I do, knowing there's a little imitator watching.  :)

 Having said that about imitating, however, let me back up and say that an area in which Moriah is not yet doing much imitating is in the area of speech.  She *still* doesn't say much at all.  "Hi," "uh-oh," and an urgent "MOM" (which reminds me of this post from long ago) continue to be spoken regularly by her, but really, that's about it.

Well, that was about it, until I noticed last week that when she sees cows, she says "Mmmmm."  Not "moo," just "mmm."  But clearly, there's meaning to it, because it's such a habitual thing for her to say that when she sees them.

For example, when we're driving along in the van and pass a field full of cows, from her car seat will come a rather loud, "Mmmmm," and if I don't acknowledge that by saying, "That's right, Moriah, I see those cows; they say 'moo'," or something like that, she'll keep repeating her "m" sound with more and more desperation until I talk to her.

I believe it was last week that I walked upstairs one day and discovered her laying on the floor of Josiah and David's room.  As soon as she saw me, she said, "Mmmmm!"  I wasn't sure what had prompted that until I realized that, hidden from my sight in the doorway but completely in her line of vision, was a trashcan that had--you guessed it--cows on it.  :)

Have I mentioned that I'm eager for her to talk more?  (Why yes, I have, haven't I?)  Until that day comes when language pours forth from her lips, I'll try to keep noticing--and appreciating--the progress that she is making.

 Moriah has a thing about dressing.  And about undressing.

She regularly takes all the clothes off her dolls (putting those clothes back on the dolls is almost always the first thing I HAVE to do when I go to her room to get her out of her crib), she likes to open the doors of her armoire and pull a particular purple fleece shirt (the one she's wearing here) from the bottom shelf and bring it to me to put on her (even though it's about two sizes too big), and she's been known to take almost all her clothes off while sitting in a shopping cart at Walmart (while I was paying the cashier and wasn't noticing what Moriah was doing)!

Recently, two incidents happened which reminded me again of how much Moriah enjoys the act of putting on--and taking off--clothes.

First, when I went into Moriah's room after her nap one day last week, I discovered that not only had she taken the shirt off the doll we call Rosebud (this doll, which Grandma Fisher gave Moriah), she had put the shirt on herself!  Of course it didn't fit her well, but she had put both of her arms in it and had managed to pull the sleeves well above her elbows.  Thank goodness for stretchy fabrics!  :)

Second, last Saturday when I was picking David up from gymnastics, I took my camera along to try to get some shots of him; and while I was holding the camera up to my eye, Moriah was busily doing a repeat of the Walmart episode.  By the time I looked down at her (which WASN'T that long!), she had gotten her shirt off, and a lady nearby was looking at her--and at me, too, I suppose--wonderingly.  Oh goodness.  That girl!  ;-)

How loved and adored she is!  :)