goat-whisperer and first steps!

Lily's absolute favorite thing right now is to help Mommy work. I put things in boxes to move. She takes them out. I put clean laundry away in the drawers. She takes everything out. I move a box to one side of the room, she pushes it to the other side of the room, opens it, and takes everything out. She is not interested in playing with the things, just in taking them out.

Then Thursday, as she, Micheline and I were down working at the new house, she was walking all over the place, holding into my fingers and pushing forward, walking as fast as possible with her big belly in the lead :) I let go of her fingers so that I could get back to work, thinking that she would stand still or plop down and take off crawling like normal. However, I caught her off guard, and she this time she just kept on walking! She took three entire steps, realized that I was NOT holding her up, and immediately sat down. I clapped and cheered for her, and she was so unaware of her accomplishment that she just clapped and grinned, and then every time after that I TRIED to get her to walk, she just sat down immediately. Before we know it...oh my.

The most exciting element of her life this week, however, has not been the big move. Little Nut Brown Hair, the goat in the church yard joined to the compound, has been very pregnant for a LONG time. Every morning walk with Daddy she is very excited to see Little Nut Brown Hair, and often tried to mimick her Daddy and shove fistfuls of grass through the chain link fence.

Tuesday, Little Nut FINALLY had her babies, two adorable little gray goatlings. Now, she is more fascinated than ever, clapping and talking rapidly to her little friends, plucking grass to feed them and chatting excitedly and wide-eyed to Little Grey and Hazelnut.

Her obsession with animals continues, though where she used to say "Doggy" every time she saw a dog wandering by, now every chicken, goat, cow and cat is "Doggy!" too.

One of our favorite things about this spunky, happy child is her sensitive heart. She doesn't mind when people yell, when they laugh, when they are angry or if they are singing at the top of their lungs. But she cannot STAND when someone cries or is sad. ANY time another child cries, her face just crumples and she bursts into sobs and tears. It is quite heartbreaking.

Tonight, however, it was Daddy that made her cry. Anytime she bites, she gets a stern NO and a swat to her hand. She always stares wide-eyed, and then moves on to something different, understanding but unphased. But tonight, when she bit Daddy's finger, HARD, he made a dramatic sad face, and said, "Owwww. Owwww, Lily. Lily, that hurt!" very sadly. She stared, and then her bottom lip started to quiver and before I knew it she was inconsolable with big fat tears running down her round cheeks!

ah, this precious gift with SO much personality already...