This Kid Cracks Me Up

Somewhere along the way, my baby has grown into a little person.  In the last few weeks, Emily (now 10 months old) has grown mentally leaps and bounds.  I'm constantly amazed at the amount of information she is retaining and learning.  A few examples:

• While playing in the bathroom drawers (a favorite pastime of the 10-month old set), she located my hair comb and brush and set them aside to find the next treasure that awaited her at the bottom of the drawer.  I looked a the pair on the floor and said, "Look Em, it's a comb and a brush, now all we need is a bowl full of mush, like in Good Night Moon."  (Good Night Moon is one of about 10 books we rotate through reading, which are kept in our living room.)  Emily stopped pulling out my curling iron, dropped to her hands and knees and promptly crawled to the living room where we keep her books.  She dug through the stack, located Good Night Moon and held it up to me.  I tried to pass it off as coincidence, but I'm pretty sure my kid is a genius.  Outdoor Dad's response to this act of intellectual acumen?  "We better start watching our language around her."  
• Our dogs used to have the run of our house.  Oh who am I kidding?  As far as I was concerned, they had the run of our lives.  Now, because Emily makes them nervous when she's on the floor, the dogs spend quite a bit of their day outside.  I noticed now that when I ask the dogs if they need to go outside, Emily will crawl around to the kitchen and the backdoor to "help me put the puppies outside."

Emily knows my redneck sign language sign for all done.  She'll crawl to the backdoor when she hears the garage door open because she knows that means DaDa is home from work.  She nickers like a horse when prompted.  If you hear her nickering and there isn't a horse in sight, chances are good she's pooping.  Somewhere along the way, she's also developed the beginnings of a sense of humor.  Emily loves to be chased.  She also thinks it's funny to put her binky in my mouth (the handle, not the sucky part, that would be  an overshare).  

Lately, she's taken to cracking herself up with her ball popping elephant and stacking cups.  I shot some video of her playing with the cups and squealing in delight.  I myself laugh every time I watch this video.

It's truly amazing to see how much her little mind has grown in just a few short months.  I can't wait to see what developments the coming weeks and months bring as we approach her first birthday.