B-Day Minus One

Yes, it's Babysitting Day, Minus One. Tomorrow we will have Juliet all to ourselves for a good part of the day. We're looking forward to it; Juliet is a little apprehensive. I was supposed to feed her this afternoon, and she would have none of it! I'm sure it will be better tomorrow, when her mother and father are out of sight. I'm pretty sure it will be better. I hope it will be better. She'll eat when she gets good and hungry, won't she??

Juliet is such a good baby in so many ways; she's really easy to travel with, loves her stroller, riding on the Metro, seeing new things. We will take her a few places this week, after clearing them with her parents. I think she might enjoy the aquarium, and we know she loves to sit on the grass in parks, so we'll visit a few of those. Maybe the Luxembourg Gardens, one of our favorite places in Paris, and do they still have puppet shows there? She's a little young but she's so interested in what is going on around her. I'm sure we'll be out and about a lot! Another idea I just had is, maybe she'll eat better when she's not in her usual milieu. Juliet might think, "I don't usually eat in the park. This 'Grandma' lady doesn't usually feed me. So this might be O.K. I think I'll give it a chance."

True to form, Juliet learned something new overnight. Yesterday, she would dump all the beads out of the container, then try to put them back in, one at a time. The problem was, she would hold the bead over the open container, but couldn't seem to let go of it. Today, she very deliberately let go of each bead, and it fell into the container. You could see her thinking about the process of letting the bead go. It was very cool. She concentrates so thoroughly on these little actions, of picking something up, or turning something over, or letting go, that you can almost see her mind working. What a miracle she is, and how blessed we are to witness her growth. I have no great pictures from today; just this one showing her concentration as she works on a new skill.