11 months

Oh my Goon! Olive was 11 months old yesterday. Before heading off to work I popped into the bedroom to bid farewell to my loves; Rob was lounging while Olive clambered around the bed and he told me she'd just said "Hello". This didn't come as a surprise since Nina had reported similarly the other day. What a mighty sweet goon. Her disposition has only warmed - all she does is grin and shriek with glee; I cannot imagine a more pleasant baby. The sleeping has continued with much success, and I'm looking forward to the move (still!) to see if she'll sleep a little longer since she always wakes with our alarms and stays awake. As for the move, we've been trying to be patient - when I viewed the front apartment on January 2nd I was given the impression that, any day now, the tenant would be vacating. Well, the space is still very much occupied, but our landlady tells us that she'll be moving next weekend. Rob's been bringing home orphaned plants from the aviary and they're residing in the safety of our galley kitchen for the time being; ain't no way we're inviting a goon to dig in the dirt. I imagine they'll flank our living room fireplace once we move.

Olive has taken after both Rob and me in the eating department...girlfriend sure does like putting away the eats. According to Rob, she gobbled up over 40 ounces of solid food yesterday and, to our delight, she appears to prefer the vegetables over the fruits. This is grand, since most babes favor the sweeter fruits and vegetables get the old heave-ho, but not for our goon. Give her some peas, green beans, squash, and sweet potato (which we often call kiazi kitamu,the name of one of the gorillas at the zoo - "sweet potato" in a African tongue), and she's pleased as punch.