baby steps

Zola took her first two shakey steps to independence on Monday evening. She's been getting closer and closer. She still prefers to crawl because she really lacks the confidence to venture off without something to hold onto... the balance and coordination is there. But, she just reminds me of me when I was trying to "drop in" at the skatepark for the longest time. I had no doubt in my mind that I could do it and that my fear of failure was the only thing holding me back.

I can't tell you how my whole chest swells when this little pooper does something magnificent like put a spoon level to her mouth without dumping the contents or weaponizing the thing. It's a heart-stopper, each and every acheivement. I get a little tear in my eye or a tug at my heart. And it's not like she's discovering some secret to world peace or curing all that ailes the world. Half the time she's just accomplishing the most ordinary thing that everyone under 85 years of age takes for granted.

Our #2 is really rocking out in there. No, literally. We went to a concert and she was really rocking out. She danced continually for over an hour. I had my 28 week check up today. I'm doing fine, but started gaining weight in some serious way... so now I'm feeling like all this work at the gym to keep things in check is pointless. If the baby needs weight, the baby will have what she wants. Just like Zola... asserting herself right up in there. At least I know I'll have the commitment at the gym for losing it afterward. That's comforting.

Anyway, more later.

the root of my square root of two.

I just realized it's been a while since I talked about math. Let me tell you about the exponential function. It models those situations where one axis has change that is disproportionately different from the other axis. So, let's take an example. One axis (horizonal line above) is pretty constant... lets say it's time... which (believe it or not) only goes at one speed no matter whether you're having fun or not. Then the other axis represents something that occurs more frequently every day at the rate of whatever it was yesterday times by the number of days since it started really increasing like nut-balls. In this example, this is the verticle axis and it represents all the crazy new things Zola learns everyday.

The square root of two is totally opposite of the exponential function. It's when things happen less frequently every day, like the number of things you can remember as you get old.

At one point, we were a family of two, but now we are a square root of more like 3.65... which is an irrational number around 1.91. But, since Zola has the energy of at least 5 average adults and has developed a football tackle relationship with Akira... I feel like we live with He-man and her side-kick cat. Especially the way she wields the remote like a sword and likes to hit people in the face with it.

She is still not walking, and no one is really looking forward to the time that she does. Because we can all see how correlated that will be with climbing. She already pulls out the drawers and climbs into them, climbs up on her toys and stands higher to get a better view out the window, and is trying to get her knee up on the (glass) coffee table. So many things to bolt down, screw in, and re-surface.

Meanwhile, her language skills are out of this world. Here are a few samples of things she regularly says in correct context:

"Hello" --When someone comes into the room or the phone rings

"Right there" --Where is you pacifier?

"All done." --Do you want more?

"No" --Can I have it?

"Yum, Yum" --Do you want some food?

"Up" or "Down" (depending on which she currently is)
"Kitty" (Pointing to the cat)

"Daddy!" (When he comes in the room)

Caleb is here for a while to help us with childcare and she just adores him. So do we. He really takes some of the stress off of me and Mark and makes it so we can spend more time together. Our house is so small, that I feel bad for making him sleep in the closet... but he seems to appreciate being here. The weather is great and there is a lot to do. Plus, even though Zola is more work than ever before, it's a little more fun now that she communicates and asserts herself. And she is really great at helping you figure out what she wants.