B.A.B.E. Week 35: Elle's likes, dislikes, and maybe her first word

Elle turned 8 months old today and we think that she expressed her first word today via sign language -- milk!  She "said" milk with her sign (think a hand milking an udder) after I had told her caregiver, Tanya, that I would nurse Elle in about 45 minutes.   Then I came downstairs to relieve Tanya a bit later and there they were with an empty bottle.  Tanya told me that Elle had been signing "milk" and sure enough when we showed Elle her empty bottle while signing "milk", she too signed "milk" at her bottle.  A half hour later, she sort of did the sign again for Wilson.  So voila!  Perhaps Elle has now communicated her first word.

It is good that Elle is now perhaps beginning to communicate because she sure is a social individual.

Likes a house full of people

Elle really enjoys having our house full of people, especially kids.  She likes being in a pack.  And she doesn't limit this enjoyment to super sweet girls like our 2 and 4 year old guests pictured above, she also enjoys being in a pack of senior citizens.  Just being around people is what she craves and she can get crabby if it is just the 2 of us home for a day.

Dislikes stroller rides

While Elle enjoys being outside, she prefers to be in our arms or in a baby carrier.  For some reason, she currently does not like her stroller.  She has never adored her stroller but is now starting to have an active distaste for the equipment.  This is a huge bummer for me because putting her in the jogging stroller was a way for me to get work out time pretty easily.  It is now not so easy when she starts to scream.

That said, we went for a run today and I bribed her with some teething crackers.  It actually worked pretty well -- because she never got upset and then fell asleep.  This was a relief as I feel like my fitness has plateaued and may even be deteriorating from when I ran the half-marathon in November. My regression is an unwelcome development and isn't really helping me with the body/fitness part of B.A.B.E.dom -- especially if Elle's stroller protests become a regular occurrence.

Likes junkanoo

This past week, we had the opportunity to go to one of the things that makes the Bahamas so special -- Junkanoo.  Junkanoo is this crazy street festival parade that starts in the dead of night on Christmas/Boxing day and New Years Day.   On New Years Day, it starts at 2 am and was still going strong when we got there at 9 am.   It is amazing because it is a panoply of incredible handmade costumes and floats, dancing, music, celebration, and everything is human powered so the floats you see below are being either carried or pushed by humans.   

It is also really loud with 400 person bands and huge barrel drums so Elle is wearing some sound-cancelling headphones below.   Even with her sound-cancelling headphones, Elle loved Junkanoo.  She smiled and kicked her legs and seems happily engaged as we admired the performers and their ability to perform/march throughout the night and into the hot Bahamas sun.