What A SMART Baby!

Please pardon me as I brag a bit on my granddaughter.

Katherine Grace (Katie) is just under sixteen months old. She's beginning to learn that words exist, and they actually might mean something; and she's also learning a few element of sign language.

You can just see the wheels turning in her head as she puts new ideas and concepts together, and tests her comprehension of what she's learning.

Tonight, while Chad (Katie's dad)was on the way home from Pensacola, where he was helping a friend move back to Jackson, we went out to eat and took Sarah (Mommy) and Katie.

Mommy and Grandmadre were busy giving Katie small pieces of bread and other food; I could see they were staying so busy with this, they weren't able to enjoy their meals. So I broke off about half a piece of the bread, a piece about two squae inches, half an inch thick, and gave her that.

You'd have thought I'd given her the moon. She laughed in delght, took a bite then laughed again, mouth wide open. From anyone else, this would be a gross-out. From your own granddaughter, it's nothing but totally cute. She laughed in huge delight with every bite she took, and the bread kept her busy and entertained for at least five minutes!

While we were there, the waiter brought Katie a helium balloon, with a ribbon on it that was so long, that when the balloon hit the ceiling, the ribbon was still within Katie's reach. He said that way the balloon couldn't get away.

Katie loved it. She played with it, and of course, let it go. It went straight up to the ceiling.

She did what any typical baby her age would do. She grabbed the ribbon and yanked to get the balloon back. But of course, she only did this with one hand, and the balloon went down and up and down and up, bobbing on the end of its ribbon.

I could see she wanted the balloon but couldn't figure out how to get it. So I showed her how to pull down on the string, then grab the string with the other hand, and pull it down some more.

Of course, at this age, she didn't quite get the concept.

We got the balloon down together, and she played with it a little bit, then up it went again.

Once more, I showed her how to pull it down, and she still wasn't sure how this "get it back" thing worked. When it came close, she played with it again, and bwoop! Up it went once more.

But WAIT! What's this? She pulled down on the ribbon, then she reached up with her other hand and pulled the ribbon down some more, then again with the first hand...

SHE GOT IT! WOW! She pulled the balloon down, hand over hand, after having been shown how only TWICE! What an amazing kid. What a delight to watch her learn.

She let it go, then pulled it down again, and the third time she did it, we got it on video! Look!

So I hope you'll forgive me for some bragging on my granddaughter. I do hope you enjoyed hearing about this, but I bet not as much as I enjoyed telling it!