Announcement for Chapter 6: September 27, 2001

Sarah's website now has 16 new pictures [age 10-12 months], featuring her summer vacation in southern France, London UK, and Vancouver BC. Unfortunately, our digital camera has been on the fritz for the last few months so we couldn't take very many pictures on our trip, and the most recent picture is from last month.

Sarah is turning the corner from baby to toddler. She began walking while holding our hands in July, on our trip. She then started crawling on her first birthday (August 28th) and now steams around the house like the "Little Engine That Could." And she's pulling herself up to standing on anything and everything handy (we've done a lot of babyproofing lately!).

She is also communicating so much more this month. We've been using "baby" American Sign Language signs to her for months, and she's done a few back. But a couple weeks ago she had the revelation that, not only is there a sign for almost anything, if she uses the sign and says the word we will probably understand her and might even give her what she wants! So now she's picking up and using signs at an astonishing clip. Her signs are somewhat wildly produced, and her words are often just the first syllable, but when she combines them us slow-witted adults finally get the point. For example, she said "Mama, Ba!" and signed "bath" so we knew it was not "ball", "Bago" (the cat, with whom she's in unrequited love), or "banana". Last week she asked for the book "More More More Said the Baby" using signs. This week she learned the sign for "bike"; she loves to ride on the back of the bike in her baby seat and feel the wind rush through her hair. She is indeed an action girl.