Hey folks, we’re sorry about the long delay since our last post, but as you can see, we’re on a new system (thanks again to Turd for his technical and coding experience and web hosting space). This should result in more frequent posts, as well as more frequent updates to our photo album* (see the Photos link in the sidebar on the right).

So, on to the meat and potatoes of this post: CQ updates.

She took her first official steps in November, but didn’t “take off” with walking until January. Roughly a month ago, she finally decided to start actively communicating with us. While she had been signing “all done” since November, and she responded to our verbal and hand signals for words like “milk,” “baby,” “more,” “eat,” and “drink,” she wouldn’t actually sign them back to us. Now, however, she picks up new signs with relative ease (she knows “more,” “eat,” “water,” “milk,” “sleep,” and she’s learning “light,” “fan,” and “help”), and she recognizes a wide variety of words (sometimes surprising us by pointing to things we’re talking about, when we didn’t know she even knew the word, like “computer”). Verbally, she babbles with inflection in her voice, making obvious attempts to sound conversational. In addition, she has been using the phrase “uh-oh,” when she drops something or makes a mistake and lets out a deliberate “ahh” after taking a big drink. She even attempts to reproduce the sounds of some animals, including dogs and monkeys. While eating, she blows on her food when she knows that it’s hot and enjoys throwing her food off her tray so that she can shake her head “no” to us, showing us that she knows she’s not supposed to. Since November, she has been noticeably and deliberately more affectionate, walking up to give us hugs or kisses at her own will. She also recognizes extended family in pictures, even being able to point to the correct person when we say his/her name. Finally, she has started doing backflips.

As for the rest of the clan, we’re thoroughly enjoying this time in CQ’s life and soaking as much of it in as we can. Riley is also looking forward to graduation in September. Recent births include Colton Randall, son and first child to our friends Turd and Cindy, and Olivia Anne, 2nd daughter to Allison’s sister and brother-in-law, Kelly and Andrew (you can view both of their websites from the links in the sidebar). Otherwise, things are as they have been, with nothing new to report.

We hope all is well with our family and friends, and please feel free to leave comments. We will try to check them fairly often and leave feedback of our own.

*For those interested, you may notice, while viewing a picture in our photo album, a link that says “View this photo on Flickr.” By doing so, you will be able to view the photo in a high-resolution format that should print well if you A) have a photo-quality printer or B) want to send it to your local Walgreens to be developed.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 12:08 am and is filed under Rillison Clan Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.