Salome On Halloween...and in Maui

We've had Halloween and been to Seattle and Maui since the last photos...and it was fun.

Salome was a scary lion for Halloween.  She wore her costume from morning till bedtime and brought out her roar several times - she'd been practicing.  We discovered at our last trick-or-treat visit at her friend Echo's house that they had coincidentally worn identical costumes. Salome's had been previously used about 8 years ago so it looked a little shaggier though.

In Seattle, Salome had a good time at the Ray Lamontagne concert and loved seeing Uncle Mo and Aunt Sherry who met us there to play for the weekend.  Then in Hawaii (besides a yucky bout of carsickness due to windy twisty roads), she had the time of her life.  She was in heaven: her mama and papa at her disposal 24/7, warm weather, lots of fruit, and the beach nearby kept her happy as a clam.  

We took a photo reminiscent of one taken 16 months earlier at a different beach - and Salome's physique seems to have changed drastically.

As Salome's second birthday draws closer (February), she seems to be learning by leaps and bounds.  She refers to me mainly as "Romy" or "Romy Bay" and Suresh is now exclusively "Papa Bear".  She is a whiz with puzzles, and letters too, so she now goes around naming letters on signs around town.  We're just trying to keep up...

Salome in the Fall

Salome got to meet even more animals in person this past month.  We went to visit friends who have a farm with goats and llamas and horses and lots of dogs.  Salome got to play with their daughter Elise and feed goats and pet dogs...she was in heaven.

She also had an extended interlude with a ladybug and was entranced as it crawled all over her. 

She's still way into Bambi and when I re-discovered the old Bambi pillowcase from my childhood, she latched on and sleeps with it every night.  She also brushes Bambi's teeth, as well as Bumper's (Thumper), Wower's (Flower) and Bambi's mama's.  It helps her voluntarily get her teeth brushed when her friends have to go through it too.  

She's been obsessed with two books especially lately - her new one from Auntie Hilly called "So Much!" and an old one of hers about a lion who is looking for Little Bird to get the thorn out of his paw, and since he has a  "poky" in his paw, she calls that book the "poky one".

She's really into fall now, and loves the colorful leaves on the ground and the pumpkins everywhere.  She likes the little leafy things that she can put on her nose and be a rhinocerous too.  So many fun things to do in the fall...

Salome In Florida

Salome got to see her Ammachi and Appachen twice in the last month - once here and once in Florida.  She loved showing them her toys in her own house (Ammachi even added to her collection by getting her a much-coveted baby stroller with a talking baby to go with it), and loved even more playing with the toys at Ammachi and Appachen's house, and looking for "didderds" (lizards) outside.  

Her other favorite parts of her trip to FL were her first viewing of the movie "Bambi" and her discovery of a papier mache statue of Gandhi.  So "Bammi" and "Donny" were constantly being requested.  She was given the statue of Gandhi by one of her many adoring uncles during a visit on our way to a trip into Orlando, and after a visit to the Lego art in Downtown Disney, she fell asleep still clutching "Donny."

She's talking more and more; putting more words together, and doing tricks preceded by the command, "Watch.  This!"  We've been teaching her to say her (very long) name and so now when she's playing by herself she'll randomly say "Ammamma" (Mariamma)  "Bizzbiss" (Elizabeth)  "Nanyo!" (Daniel) - still skipping right over McGahan.  I guess she's hinting that she has enough names to memorize.

Next time, fall pictures...

Salome and the Animals

Since you heard from us last, Salome has had lots of fun with "aminals."  She got to hold a fish that her papa caught, which she found fascinating.  "Mish!" she said. "Hold it!"

We also visited the petting zoo at the Western Montana Fair where Salome got to pet various very tame farm animals.  Three weeks or so later, and she is still talking about the "aminose".  She sometimes just says that word to random people in the grocery store.  Then she lists off as many animals as she can think of and their noises.  

She has an insane shoe fetish and wants to put on several pairs of shoes each day, and they can belong to her parents too, that's just fine with her.  Size is no obstacle.  Her pink cowboy boots are 2 or 3 sizes too big, but thats a little more doable than her papa's work boots.

She's 18 months now and she's learning something new and funny every day.  She seems to absorb everything, even things I don't even realize.  She has learned the colors yellow and red pretty well and loves for me to draw shapes for her, especially suns, and when she scribbles, she says, "Nun!" to show me that she drew a sun too.

Her Papa was gone for almost two weeks in Europe on business and she missed him a lot - when she would pick up a phone to play with and I would ask her who she was calling she said "Baba."

She also misses her aunty Hilly and yells for her a lot, especially when she sees her bike.  She pats the seat and says, "Haddy."  

Salome Reunites With Family

Salome has met all sorts of family these past two weeks.  We've had two family reunions, one on her maternal grandpa's side and one on her maternal grandma's side.  One get-together was up at Flathead Lake so Salome got to go in the (cold) water and wander around outside in the nude.  

She was also in a baby fashion show at a local block party and got to walk down a runway with a few of her friends wearing an outfit from a local kid's shop.  Once we got to the end of the runway, she didn't want to go back. She just wanted to stare at all the little kids in the audience who were watching her.  

We had an interesting moment on our porch the other day when Salome discovered the electrical outlet and after being told not to touch it, she decided to see how far she could push her luck.  She just sat there touching the outlet cover and not opening it, just touching it and looking at me to see what I'd do. She probably didn't expect me to start taking pictures.  But I was having a hard time not laughing as I reprimanded her, so the camera diffused the situation and she finally wandered away.  I sense that this won't be the last of our battles of the wills...

More photos of the other reunion will follow soon...

Ok, I added the rest.  Now I'm caught up with the past 2,3 weeks and both reunions.   Salome had a ball last weekend.  You can tell by the vast number of people that she was seriously entertained and thoroughly paid-attention-to.

It was just about as perfect as it could have been - great weather, great food, and family all on one place at once.  

Salome got to enjoy her first lollipop on one of the car rides out to Arlee, courtesy of Auntie Hilly (who, by the way is in India, but that doesn't stop Salome from hollering for "Heddy" every morning).  You'll be glad to know it was an organic lollipop though, Ammachi and Appachen.  Can you believe they make organic candy?

The photos of Salome in the garden wearing her bonnet are from today's trip to Caras Nursery.  At one point while we looked at fruit trees, Salome disappeared into a cluster of rose bushes and it took a minute for us to spot her.  She had already managed to smell half the roses in the garden by the time we found her pink bonnet bobbing around among the flowers.

Salome in the Yard

Salome loves Grandma's baby robin.  She tries to set it free from its cage and constantly wants to feed it worms - "ooms".  She even got a few in its very excited mouth and was so pleased about that.  She looked a little unsure at first when the bird perched on her arm, but then didn't want to let it go. 

We went to the water park again with almost the whole family and all the kids had a spectacular time going down slides and splashing around.  Salome takes a little while to acclimate to the water, but then she's walking in by herself and falling down and laughing.  As we were leaving the park, Salome thought it would be fun to hang on and cling to the wave-shaped bike racks.  She shouted "Munny!" (monkey) when she would hang or wrap her arms around the bar.  I've been asking her if she's a monkey when she climbs things.  She says "munny" for bunny, money and monkey.

Then she got to try out her new garage sale toys and wear some new (to her) duds.  I found 5 pairs of shoes for her that morning and the ones she chose to wear were the bright red patent leather girly shoes.  

Her friend Mila came over to play too, and they had a good time.  They alternately played cooperatively and yelled at each other and shoved each other a few times.  Babies have their own way of "playing" together.  They did kiss each other several times before Mila left though.  

Salome has been having a BALL playing in the front yard now that it's fenced and we have an array of fine plastic toys to play with.  She cooks, drives, slides and gets inside the fridge.  

But her favorite thing of the week has been her visiting Appachen, who she has dubbed "Appa".  She is his little sidekick.  She is looking forward to seeing both Appachen and Ammachi ("Ammi")  in August...

Salome's Playmates

Salome has so many good playmates.  Her cousin Cortney has been visiting often lately because she takes Driver's Ed in Missoula, so Salome is thrilled with that.  They took a sweet nap together one afternoon and I documented it, of course.  Salome is also overjoyed to have Auntie Hilly ("Heddy") just downstairs at her beck and call.  Her Auntie has been teaching her lots of new words, and now she is learning to count to 10 in Spanish.  She has very good pronunciation, but kind of gets distracted right around 6 or 8 and then finds something else to do.  

Her Appachen is also in town for a couple weeks, and she couldn't be more happy about that.  She calls him Appa and lets just say he comes when she calls.

One of her latest things, as you can see from the last few weeks, is the desire to be nude as often as possible.  When bathtime comes, she seems to sneak right out the door, out the fence and down the sidewalk.  Another new thing she does is to show us how strong she is.  She grits her teeth and grins and turns red and quivers while she clenches her hands into awkward positions.  She also has been giving us some very strange looks and then pointing at her eyes to show us with which she is able to make those strange looks.   She is learning all her body parts and can list them off - my favorite of the moment is when she points to the mole on her arm and says "MOOOWW"  with a long face and an "O"-shaped mouth.  

She loves the water so she had a great time at the water park and is also just satisfied to play with a trickle of water from the hose.  

We were in Arlee for the 4th and Salome got to sit astride the huge fish that Grandma will be painting.  I think her papa wished he could have ridden it.