Welcome to Microsoft

Lilli experienced the vast world of Microsoft today. We joined Jon for an early lunch at The Commons, the small food and shopping center within the Microsoft campus. Lilli loved crawling on the spotless pavement while we enjoyed an al fresco Indian lunch and riding high on Daddy's shoulders around the campus. We visited Jon's cube and rolled around on the astro turf football (soccer) field. I think this may have to become a regular outing.

In the meantime Lilli has some accomplishments I know she would like me to share. Besides sporting 6 sharp white teeth and weighing in at over 18lbs (18lbs 10 oz as of February 3rd) she is also sleeping through the night! There have been some exceptions, due I believe to yet more teeth possibly moving around, but on the whole we are a better rested and happier trio! However this latest development is even more exciting than 8 hours of blissful uninterrupted sleep. Lilli is starting to get it! She plays with us and can show us that she understands! We play chase around the house, peakaboo now evokes squeals of laughter, she knows exactly want she wants and does not want to do and she can wave, clap, lift her arms up, kiss and wrinkle her nose when prompted with words. We do have a slight confusion with the wave word since she limp-wristedly flaps her hand at the surfing "Wave Sheep" in her book "Where is the Green Sheep?" Kisses are great fun and very sloppy. She dives in for mouth to mouth kisses with lips in a big O and coated with drool! Delicious! She loves swaying to music and strumming Jon's guitar. We're trying to discourage our budding Jimi Hendrix from plucking the strings with her teeth!

Her activity level continues to increase. If there was a speed crawling event at the Olympics I believe she would win Gold. She sprint crawls from one corner of the house with fun off-limit toys, such as the computer, to the opposite corner, with the TV and stereo, to the bathroom where we've always successfully won the race to the toilet brush on which she's impatient to gnaw. If not crawling, then she's climbing up and over boxes or standing with the help of the bars of her corral. Thankfully she has mastered the fine art of gentle descent by slowly bending her knees to return her padded diapered bottom to the ground. However her preferred ground texture is wooden floorboards, concrete, lino or rug. On recent sunny day outings (the weather has been beautiful here) to the park and the beach she refused to venture off the picnic blanket. She instead sat close to the edge warily fingering the grass / sand.