The Rankin Zoo 

Today Coral started saying “Me” a lot. We’re not sure she knows what it means, but she sure likes saying it. Me, me, me, me. Not in a demanding way, just kind of like she says “Hi” to everyone - except now she’s saying “Me”.

We think she might be getting another tooth because her eating and sleeping have been a bit off lately. Today she wasn’t really into eating even her favorites like cantalope and avacado. Strange.

We went out for lunch and Coral did a lot of walking. It was her most impressive display so far - doing a good 15-20 feet and stumbling around like the best of them. At home she’s not as into it - maybe she likes more open space?

Coral has learned a few words now but the most commonly used word, by far, is “Hi”. She likes to say this to pretty much everyone she sees. She says it to dogs and cats too. It sometimes catches people off guard in stores, and occasionally she gets into a “Hi” battle when someone insists on responding with a “Hi” to her “Hi”.

She knows other words too - like: dog, cat, dadda, mommy (sometimes), up, down, please, and she still tries really hard with avocado.

She consistently waives bye-bye, it seems to be hard wired now. If she hears someone say “bye” she starts waiving without even looking.

She also has quite a sour-puss face, as you can see in the picture. She actually has a wide variety of faces that she makes, depending on her mood. I’ll try to put together a gallery of her various faces.

After getting some good lessons from her cousin Eva over the weekend, Coral has decided that walking isn’t that hard. Well, it’s a little bit hard, and not easy enough to do all the time.

She has been taking a step or two for a couple of weeks but this morning she took 4-5 steps and covered about three feet. She seemed quite proud of herself, although it looked more like a somewhat controlled fall than an actual walk.

Getting out the video camera cured her of the walking bug and she stopped doing it - so we still don’t have any evidence. But B and I both saw her walk a couple of times so I think it’s okay to declare today as the day Coral officially learned how to walk. Coral sends a big thank you to Eva for showing her the ropes.

Okay, it’s been a while since I’ve posted, and hopefully I’ll post some backdated stuff so you won’t even be able to tell. There’s lots to report but the interesting thing today was when Mimi locked Coral in the van. Coral and B have been spending the week in Annapolis so Mimi can look after Coral while our nanny is out of town. Today, B was at work and Mimi had taken Coral to the library. Well, somehow or another Coral ended up locked in the van. The hide-a-key really paid off though and Mimi was able to quickly get Coral out (which is good, considering how hot it is). Apparently, Coral enjoyed the “ordeal” and is no worse for wear.