Hi!
What a great picture to see on my birthday. I have been keeping up almost daily with your sight for months now and I just love watching trixie grow up. I cant wait to take pictures like this of my step-son Zach like this. Just think, when trixie is my age(19) you can show her this picture and take her back to this park and say this is how tall you were when you were one year old. Congratulations of 1 year of parenthood!!

That is such an incredible picture! Where are you guys? You have such an eye for photography. I'm now addicted to your site, and have to log on every day!
Thanks for sharing Trixie with us!

This is part 3 of our 4-part World of Danger at the UNC Botanic Gardens series.

That's so cool! Can you actually play a game of chess? Lovin' "Danger" Week and glad Trixie survived it.

So it looks like Trixie really has gotten a hold of the walking thing. Is she walking well now, or does she prefer crawling? And words yet...

What an exciting time, she really is starting to look like a little girl, not a baby anymore.

This picture is absolutely amazing. Trixie looks so adorable, and the asthetics of the photo are perfect.

Walking: Trixie doesn't crawl anymore. I think maybe the last time she did was a few days ago, and that was just for a quick burst across the kitchen floor. She also no longer looks like a Frankenstein monster with the outstretched arms and lurching gait. Good for her, bad for those of us who liked to watch her stumble around like a zombie toddler.

Talking: Trixie won't talk. I've been meaning to write a story about it, but I keep putting it off. She still babbles on and on with da/dat/dar but she won't identify or ask for anything. She knows what things are - she's smart in that way. I can give complex commands like "Go get your [playing] cards and put them in your purse," and she'll spend 15 minutes collecting the deck of cards that's spread all over the house, but she won't say "card" or "purse", or for that matter "milk", "done", "baby", "hi" or "bye-bye". Not a one. It's something that we're trying to work on.

Have you looked into baby signs? There's a kit that you can get that helps teach basic ASL to babies. It's really great for kids who are ready to communicate but who can't quite get their mouths around the words. I know some people who have used it for their kids with great success. It's just basic words like "yes," "no," and "I want" but it seems to me you can say a lot with that.

Rachel's got the same thing going on. She knows what's what, and she understands us pretty well (if not perfectly). I don't think she's hit the level of complexity you describe, but she certainly understands us.

And she goes on and on with the random syllables. But she also doesn't really have names for anything. We *think* that "ba.. ba.. ba.. ba.." means "up," (as in pick me up) but we're not even sure of that, and even if we're right it's neither consistent or exclusive (ie: sometimes she says "da..da..da." for pick me up, and sometimes she says "ba..ba..ba" for give me that, or take that away, or whatever.)

Basically, the "ba=up" thing is just wishful thinking.

We're not worried. And I feel confident not worrying about Trixie, either. They're both clearly 'getting it,' they just haven't decided to engage that brain section yet.

My little brother didn't speak at all until he was about 20 months, but when he did it was in pretty complete thoughts.

My theory -- and this is totally non scientific -- is that it's a result of G. and I speaking to and around Rachel (and Mom and Dad speaking to and around my brother) in more complete, conversational sentences and phrases. Sure, we spend some time with the "AAA-pple. AAApple. It's a RED! Apple!" But most of the time we're talking to each other or to her in fairly complete, adult sentences.

But that level of complexity is probably outside of Rachel's scope right now; even though she can process it, she can't create it. So she's stuck understanding and not speaking. But the verbal centers are still cranking, so she babbles. Like a brook.

--FD

On talking...every child has their own learning curve. And, like some have already suggested, it will come in time.

It's fairly common that girls talk before boys. There's also the thought that it depends on their surroundings and other siblings. I'm the oldest and was around 1 1/2 when I first started talking. My husband didn't really talk until he was around 4 yrs old. He had an older brother who talked for him, if needed, but got by fine on his own otherwise. I don't believe there's any correlation between talking/learning to talk and intellegence either. My husband turned out great and is extremely intelligent.

Trixie seems to be progressing quite well for her age. I wouldn't worry too much about her verbal skills; she's just taking everything in right now...and seems to be enjoying it!

Well, it's good to hear from you guys that kids advance at different ages. I mean, I wish Trixie would learn how to at least wave bye-bye, but I guess it's just not on her radar yet. thanks-

Colum knows some baby signs but mostly doesn't use them (except for "light" and "book"), but then, he's been talking (monosyllabic words mostly) for a couple of months. I, on the other hand, didn't talk until I was 2.

A good resource for signs is the ASL browser (http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm) - it has QuickTime movies of signs, which I adapt for Colum.

Speaking and walking are things that every baby learns, but at dramatically different points. Just like there was a day that Trixie just suddenly walked (and now barely 1-2 months later never even crawls per what you say) when she finally talks it will never stop for a second. :-)

nyssa is right, this is a great picture for my birthday! I'm a chess freak too, hehe...

I think Trixie is right on track for talking. Maddie can say three words: Mama, Dada, and Duck. (the animal, not "look out!"). However, she does sign quite a bit. We took lessons at the WA State School for the Deaf. I highly recommend teaching the sign for "more," if nothing else. Once Maddie could do that, she would sign it when she wanted more of something instead of the extraordinarily high pitched shriek she used before. Aaaaahhh....much better on our ears! Now that I think about it, she doesn't really say "dada" anymore....she signs it instead. Odd.