sparrow claps, other baby throws up

the hunch i'd had that sparrow is "the best baby ever" was confirmed on our recent travels. let me just give one illustration: on the flight back, which was a day flight, sparrow napped, clapped, waved, entertained preteen passengers with fishface on command, and argued but little when i told her she had to stay in my lap for the whole 11 hours on a completely crowded airplane. there was another baby and momma sitting next to us. this baby was the same age and nearly as beautiful, but was alternately whining and vomiting the whole time. sparrow? clapping hands. irish baby? barfing on mum. i count myself blessed. let me copy a few photos and excerpts from my blog on germany that pertain to her...

"sparrow was so sweet in the airport, waving to this beautiful lady on a big poster so earnestly. when the plane took off, she was sitting on my lap, and clapping her hands eagerly. then we looked at our in-flight magazine and she tried several times to grab the glasses off of a picture of robin williams. she slept in the bassinet in front of me for at least half the time, and by 4 am our time we had landed and were wandering the dublin airport looking for our next flight."

"oh. hehe. and sparrow's little healthy baby diet? right out the window. i noticed quite early on that feeding a squirmy baby in your lap liquid baby foods on a plane was not the greatest of ideas, when an hour into the flight we and the airplane seats were thoroughly decorated with the stuff and there still wasn't any in her tummy. just too excited! she just kept wanting to get down or look over the seatback and play with the irish grandma who had said her name was "very silly." then she kept swiping and batting at my dinner, and i couldn't very well keep it far away from her... finally i broke down and decided to give her my cracker pack. she'd never had white flour in her life. i rubbed all the salt off the crackers and handed them over and she devoured them in less than 10 seconds. wow. that was so...easy! here! have a bun! and it was all downhill from there, from french fries to cream sauce to pizza... and she didn't get sick once."

"my sister got to come down and stay for the weekend which was great, as she hadn't seen baby since she was 2 months old and could not yet make a fish face. the more the merrier, hey? sparrow was reveling in all the new attention, and making friends with the ladies but keeping a flirtatious distance from the men, whom she could not trust, no doubt because they were blond."

"but speaking of fish face, germany was where it first made its appearance on sparrow's countenance. thomas had been trying to teach it to her for weeks, but she hadn't responded. then i was trying to impress the relatives and said, "tigerface!" which she did, and "fishyface!"...which she did! i was just as surprised as my cousin tim but played it off like she has just always made any animal face on command... hehe."

at the frankfurt airport:
"ran off lopsidedly as fast as i could, pushing my cheesy veering umbrella stroller with one hand and still holding the baby in the other arm. she was quite unaware of all the cause for stress and was happily bouncing/jolting about bobbleheaded and happy and waving to everyone as i raced by them with much sweat and grimacing."

From germany

oh but she's learned so much more than fishface in the past month. a million little things that i am sad to have missed out on blogging, for i can never remember them all. one of the cutest is that she does patty-cake now, with the highlight of "mark it with a b," at which point she takes her extended little finger and draws on her other palm; ohmygoodness, it kills me! the other day, our housemates naomi and barnaby came in and i said something to sparrow about "uncle bar-na-bee," and the next thing i knew she was marking it with a b! which amazed us all and pleased naomi in particular, as her special nickname for her husband is just "B."

she has also officially made up her own sign for the first time, a symbol for "phone," where she simply puts her palm on her ear. at first i thought she was just saying "ears;" she has known where her ears are for quite some time now. but it was right after naomi had hung up the phone with someone, and sparrow kept pointing to the phone and then doing her ear thing excitedly. when the light went on as to what she was doing, i was so proud of her that i unplugged the phone and let her play with it for half an hour. we have given her thomas' old cell phone to use now that she doesn't chew on them so much anymore but actually holds them up to her ear and pushes buttons and what-not. when she gets a hold of mine it is particularly lovely because there is a picture of her and thomas on it. she points to his little face on the right side of the screen and says "DADDA!!" with so much vigor every time. i love that she is pointing directly now.

i will have to come back with more some other time because i am falling asleep right here. remind me to tell you about how she said banana, and express my speculations on language encouragement