beauty, brains and brawn

Flynn QiuQiu has been moving at lightening speed for the past week with her skills, and at the same time Mommy has been getting back to work in the studio here and there, so we've been indoors a lot more than usual. This combination has made for some sub-par photos, and normally I try not to post the less-than-adequate ones. But I'm going to make an exception here because Flynn's advances need to be recorded! I don't love taking flash photos, for one because I don't want to sour her on the camera, and also because they're so...well, flash-y. So I apologize for the blur factor, but there it is.

She's all about standing these days, and will be on her feet as often as Mommy is willing to be there to "spot" her.

She'll hold on to things, but the actual (wobbly) steps are dependent on a helping hand.

Daddy's hands or mommy's hands will do!

The second big breakthrough came a couple of nights ago when she abruptly figured out how to crawl up on all fours. Some people were betting that she'd learn to walk and never bother with the crawling part. Be she's doing us one better - both at the same time! I give her a lot of credit for this since it happened in Mommy's studio, where the hardwood floors are mostly exposed. It's gotta be tough on those soft little knees.

But her pride is evident!

Here's one of her gratuitous disco moves.

She likes to prove that she can do it with one hand free. Look, ma...one hand!

She's not speedy on all fours yet - still a little shakey. But her determination is 100%.

As you can see, the standing up just doesn't get old for her...day or night, PJs or pants. Any opportunity to bone up on her skills.

She's always happy to be upright!

I'm a little in love with this little outfit that we found at the thrift store...makes her look like she's ready to practice some martial arts. Although she tends to wriggle out of the ties pretty quick, leaving her looking not unlike Hugh Heffner in an open smoking jacket.

She's also working on learning to pet the doggies. But as you can see from Sam's wary expression, she's still a little on the fierce side. This time she did it right, but the majority of the time it's more of a stabby sort of swipe with her sharp little fingernails...usually at someplace tender like a nose or, um, posterior. My über-intelligent dog understands that we're trying to "train" her, so he stays put and endures, only throwing me the occasional pained look that's his version of an eye-roll.

Not doing a whole lot here, but that lovely dolphin smile is worth a thousand words.

Oops, up and at 'em again. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice.

This alphabet match game is one of her favorites, and to my amazement, she's actually matching! She can't figure out all of them...the round letters like Q and O tend to stump her. But some of them she can get right off the bat. She has trouble actually fitting the wooden letters into their holes, so when she finds a match she either touches the image with her fingertips or holds the letter block over its match and waits for me to fit it in. I am amazed by this. Truly gobsmacked.

Back on the road! She's persistent, I'll give her that!

This is what happens when Mommy has been working for a little too long. Soooooo....bored......
Look how long she looks in this position! We know she has gained another two pounds, but since we failed to properly measure her the first time, we're not sure how her height is progressing.

Any chance you want to play with me again anytime soon? I'll just be here, you know, hanging around. Chewing on envelopes.

Here she is wearing the lovely pearl necklace her Godmother Chrissie made for her birthday. It would go better with a flouncy dress. But we haven't had any flouncy-dress occasions lately.
That's 3-D chalk she's playing with. She hasn't learned to draw yet, but she has no trouble holding a pen, pencil or crayon. Only trouble is that now she's not so wary of her mouth, there's always the danger of the writing implement going straight between the teeth like a cigar! So far, still no danger of her swallowing anything solid, but I've had to fish purple, pink and puce wrapping tissue out of her sharp little teeth more than once. The thing that most tickles her gustatorial fancy thus far is fuscia post-it notes. I've had to put all of those out of reach lest she ingest toxic quantities of fuscia dye. Can't be good for you, I'm guessing. Or am I wrong?
I myself ate a lot of Play-doh in my youth. The smell still makes me salivate.