Walking and Talking

... Well ... sort of ...

Right now, Zoey can:

• Walk very straight as long as she is holding onto my 2 index fingers and Daddy walks along with her.  She is very comfortable (and happy) walking in this manner.  I've tried to encourage her to walk independently, so I'll help her up, and then gradually withdraw my fingers from her little hands.  She'll still take a few steps as long as she has a grip on one of my fingers, but she won't let go of that last finger.  I've withdrawn both fingers from her grip, and she gets a bit anxious and begins making a NNNNNGGGGHHHH sound (which is her way of flagging my attention that she's not happy about something).  She can pull herself up to a standing position with the assistance of furniture around the house.
• Say a few words, like Da-da, Ma-ma, Ge-ge (big brother in Chinese).  She also gestures toward things she wants, and is very emphatic about it.
• Eat some solid foods.  We give her rice with soup in it (to soften it up), applesauce, pear sauce, mushed avocado, mashed potatoes, watermelon juice, all sorts of different foods.  She really enjoys eating, and she is very prudent about eating.  If she has a bite of food in her mouth that is bigger than she's comfortable with (and she is VERY conservative about how much food that is) she will spit it out.

Magic Kingdom Balloon

Zoey had her first trip to Disney yesterday. We went to Magic Kingdom. It was packed there. I had completely forgotten it was MLK day on Monday, and schools were out.

She was very good during the entire trip. It's a Small World amused and fascinated her. Pirates of the Caribbean scared her (in retrospect, it probably was not a good ride for a little baby, too dark and creepy).

However, she was most intrigued by the Disney Balloons.

There was a specific type she liked ... they are a single color mouse-ear balloon within a bigger clear balloon. It's difficult to describe, but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words ... someone captured a beautiful picture of the Disney Balloons and posted it to their Flickr stream.

Every time Zoey saw a stroller with one of these balloons tied to a stroller, she would point / gesture at it and make a NNNNNGGGGGG sound. This is her way of communicating that she wants something, or is interested in something.

I took her close to a couple of the balloons and she got so excited. Her face lit up and she became really animated and giggled and smiled.

As we were leaving, I ended up buying her one of those balloons. It's all she really wanted out of the trip. She got a dark green mouse-ear one in the clear balloon globe. The balloon cost $12. I was *shocked* at how expensive it was (I guess I shouldn't have, considering it was Disney and all), but I can't put a price on something that makes my little daughter smile.

It's like her favorite thing right now. We shortened the string so it's too short to wrap around her neck and we supervise her when she plays with it, but it provides her tons of joy just staring at it with fascination.