Week 29

Dear Zayde,


This week I learned that I can roll both ways.  I've been rolling from my front to back for months, and it never really occurred to me that I would ever need or want to make the return trip to my stomach.  This week Mommy gave me a reason.  One morning, I was happily playing on my tummy when I noticed that one of my toys was close but just out of reach.  Mommy was watching me from the kitchen while doing something other than entertaining or feeding or changing me.  I really wanted that toy.  I yelled at it to come closer, but it ignored me.  I thought that perhaps if I rolled onto my back, I'd be able to reach it, so I hurled myself in that direction.  Alas, I was still not quite within grasping range.  I called to Mommy, but she just stood there, watching me, and saying something unhelpful, such as, "C'mon Zelda, you can do it!"  That got me so frustrated that I began to rock back and forth on my back until I ended up on my side, facing the toy.  I stretched out my hands and attempted to elongate myself, but I just...couldn't...reach.  That's when I kicked my legs.  And you know what happened?  I pushed myself onto my tummy!  One good kick, and I had propelled myself all the way over.  Finally, the toy was mine!  Mommy started jumping up and down, squealing with glee.  I guess she really wanted me to get that toy, too.  At least, that's what I thought until she picked me up and swung me around, telling me how amazing I am.  If I'm so amazing, why wouldn't she let me play with that toy?!?  Since then, I've found this ability to roll in any direction both useful and entertaining.  I enjoy rolling from back to tummy and then back again, just for the joy of moving about.  Daddy says that soon I'll be "crawling."  I'm not sure what that means, but if it gets me closer to my wayward toys, I'm all for it.

This week I also learned that Mommy and Daddy decided to install a baby fence.  They hired a gentleman to spend some time in our back yard putting up a black mesh fence that doesn't really jive with the general style of our patio.  I'm not sure if the fence is meant to keep babies in or out.  Is there a band of feral babies roaming the neighborhood?  Are we in danger?  Or are we trying to herd wild babies into the fence for safe keeping?  If it's the latter, I hope those babies can swim because the idiot who installed the fence put it all the way around our swimming pool.  We already had a fence around the back yard.  I think this is just redundant.  If the cost of this fence came out of my toys and books fund, I'm going to complain.

Speaking of the great outdoors, this week I learned that animals have babies, too.  While walking with Mommy, Grandma, and Grandma's dog, Lenny, we encountered a duck and her three little ducklings.  They followed their mother right up to us.  Those ducklings looked soft and squishy.  I wanted to hold one and perhaps taste it, but Mommy wouldn't put me down on the ground.  She's always preventing me from putting new things in my mouth.  Doesn't she know how delicious the world can be?

Now that it's summer, I'm learning that the sun sets later in the day.  Even at 8:00 pm, when it's time to put on my pajamas and begin my "nighttime routine," which sounds like a lounge act but isn't, the sun has not yet disappeared.  I am a big fan of sunshine, so this turn of events seems like a good opportunity to get Mommy and Daddy to push back my bedtime.  Surely they have nothing better to do than play with me until late into the evening.  It's not like they want to spend some time alone without me, the liveliest member of the family.  What would they possibly do that didn't involve me?

Just a few more weeks until we visit you and Bubbi.  I think you'll both be amazed at how much I've grown.  Who knows what amazing skills I will have acquired by then?


Over and over,
Zelda