Dear Lucille: Month Eleven

What a month! You spent June in a whirlwind of pointing, crawling and charming strangers all across Europe.

Oh, the pointing! You are so, so good at pointing. At it is really fun to explore this big milestone of “shared sensing” with you.

You pointed in restaurants, cafes and especially at the aquarium.

When you’re really excited you point with both your fingers. Pointing is the very first thing you do when you wake up from a nap.

Second only to your love of pointing is your passion for climbing up things and pushing things around. Daddy is your favorite thing to climb – and you reward him with a big open mouth “kiss” or a chomp on the nose when you reach his face.

You climbed up cannons at castles,

fancy terraces in Geneva,

train windows,

cafe tables,

your stroller everywhere, including the beach,

and park benches in France. The pace at which you are determined to hurt yourself is exhausting.

Thankfully, you are still very happy to ride in your stroller despite this new mobility. We pushed you up and down every hill and across every cobblestone in Lisbon.

We started to worry that all the shaking from the cobblestones would hurt you. But you loved it. You would sing out and kick your arms and legs the bumpier they got.

You also will still take a pretty impressive nap in your stroller – with your hat pulled down over your eyes.

It’s only when you’re sleeping that I can get a close-up look at your fingers and toes.

You are a very fast crawler.

Thankfully you are quite loud when you crawl – with your hands slapping the floor and your knees stomping (and usually singing) so it isn’t too hard to keep track of where you are rushing off to.

We worked hard to keep you cool and un-sunburned during the hot June weather in Europe.

You’re a fan of playing with a pan filled with water. Or, at least, will play with it for about 10 minutes before dumping the water out on yourself.

Despite our best efforts, you picked up your first freckles in Portugal – on your nose, under your eye and on your left leg.

At least we tried!

You were so, so cute taking a cool bath in our Lisbon apartment’s sink.

You had your first carousel ride in Lyon, France – riding in the saddlebag of a burro. You thought it was pretty great! You also ate (well, really, slept) at your first Michelin-star restaurant in Lyon.

You were amazing on our 14 hours of flights back to California. You can never seem to stay awake on a plane more than 15 minutes – usually falling deep asleep right when the plane takes off. The entire crew of our British Airways flight was in love with you.

You were even cute at 4:00 am back in San Francisco – determined that it was day. This was a very sweet moment for me – reading books with you and eating cereal in the dark (and thankfully only lasted a few days).

You like to “dance” along with music – bucking up on your knees and waving your arms around in the air. You also love the game of giving me your stuffed animals to hug and think it is hilarious.

Your babysitter Panida is impressed with how much you eat now. She loves taking you to storytime at the bookstore where you talk and sing along with the other bigger kids the whole time. You are still a good volunteer with us in the parks and come home covered with mud and pizza.

We love you so much!