The Bad News Q

QQ is very into her balls lately. She has a big bouncy rubber one (or three) that she likes to mess around with around the house. She has a soccer ball (gift from aunt Kay and uncle Ken) that she plays with in the car (and that she isn't half-bad at kicking around a field, I must say). And she has this baseball, a relic, I believe, from her daddy's childhood.
She understood the interplay of balls from the beginning, and learned to roll them back and forth with a partner even before she could walk. The biggest hurdle for her was learning to throw effectively, and since she's got a handle on that, she's even more excited about play time.


I was never a team-sports girl, and the best I ever did with anything involving a ball was tennis (and I was only OK at that when I was a teen). I can't throw a ball, frisbee or stick to save my life. Literally, if my life depended on a good pitch, or even a halfway-accurate toss, I would not survive. I am more than a bit of a klutz, and my arms are my weakest point. So I really don't know what I'm going to do if my daughter wants to learn about ball sports.
From the look of this shot, the girl just might have an arm on her. Look at that keen eye as she lines up the shot, and the way she's cocking her pitching arm.
(Now, why are we pitching in the kitchen, you may well ask? You may well ask.)
Oh, yeah. Some poor batter is in deep, deep doo-doo here.
As you can see, she's been painting. I love this shot. Is there anything sweeter than your baby's little hands?
Retrieving the ball from a tight spot. This makes her legs look really long. She is a long girl, but the jury is still out on whether she's going to be exceptionally tall or not. Part of it is the optical illusion created by the fact that she has the body of a whippet. The kid doesn' t have an ounce of fat on her. Everything about her is long, lean and spare, until you get to the chipmunk face. Part of it is also that she's going through some major catch-up growth over the past three or four months. It took a while for her new diet to kick in, but I tell you the kid eats like an olympic athlete...nothing but the best and most nutritious for her. So when her body realized that this was going to be the new standard, she started growing at a preternatural speed. I'm guessing that will equalize at some point and she'll resume a normal, dignified growth rate. Sheesh, I hope so!



Bumped her head trying to get out from under the highchair...but after thinking about it for a minute, decided it wasn't worth crying about. It takes a lot to bring this kid down.



Mommy is still at it with the hats, btw. As you can see, it gets a bit old for QQ after a while. Seriously, mommy. Is this necessary?
Incidentally, her last inch of growth has put her well within reach of nearly every surface in the house. Which means mommy has a shelving project on her hands. I need to clear those surfaces.
After two months of frightening growth, she took a break last month, adding only a couple of millimeters....and I breathed a sigh of relief. But this month she is at it again - adding nearly another inch last time we checked. Seriously, Q. Is this necessary?