Astrid being her independent self

Here are some photos from our walk today. She's growing so tall.
Just chillin' on the steps.
Walking down the stairs all by herself.

Astrid's new thing now is saying, "Self Self" or "Myself" - which means "I want to do it by myself."
She didn't want to hold my hand because she wanted to walk down the stairs by herself.
"Okay, this is getting a bit scary - maybe I do need help."

She's an old pro at walking up and down stairs by herself at home. (We never put up baby gates or child proofed the stairs in our 2 story home. When Astrid was little she had to hold our hand going up and down, until we saw that she was ready to go up and down on her own. She skipped the going backwards on her belly stage. She's been walking up and down the stairs just like an adult does since she was a baby. I made sure she had grip on her socks.) But here the railing is high and it was hard for her to reach, and there are something like 6 flights of stairs.
"Hand!"

That one word signature shout is Astrid's way of asking me to hold her hand. "Hand please."

That's when teaching her to use the word "please" comes in handy.She's getting a new tooth that's coming in on top, the second one over from the incisor (on the right). So she's always got her fingers and hands in her mouth again since she's teething.

When her first 16 teeth came in (8 on the top and 8 on the bottom) she wasn't able to tell me what was going on. But now that she's a little older and can use her words - she tells me it hurts and will point to her mouth and show me. "Mouth hurt," she says. I first noticed it when I was trying to brush her teeth on that side and she kept pulling away. Now we have an electric toothbrush for her and that seems to help. I think she even likes the way it feels massaging her gums. She loves being able to brush her own teeth with it. Again the "Self Self" / "Myself" comes into play.Made it down to the next big landing successfully.Astrid reaching out and touching the weeds.

In the distance you can see the new park they recently built on San Fernando Road. Looking cute and determined.That's us!Both Astrid and I saying, "Cheese!"

Astrid holding her own shopping basket

Tonight I decided to try and make Vietnamese chicken pho' from scratch. Whole Foods was out of fresh basil, so I went to Ralph's and got some organic basil there.

We had already been to 2 different grocery stores by this time (Whole Foods, and Seafood City), to get various ingredients, so Astrid needed to stretch her legs and walk a little bit. If I'm just getting a few items, I let her hold the shopping basket, which she loves to do.

At first I couldn't figure out why the photos were coming out so fuzzy, like there was a filter on it to make it look soft. Then I realized the reason for it - little fingers smudging the camera lens. Uwe lets Astrid play with the camera to look at photos of herself, and we had just come back from Joshua Tree, where she had been playing with it.

She has her Whole Foods monkey in her basket. (Proceeds go to the Jane Goodall Institute.)Sometimes it looks like the basket is too heavy for her, but if I ask her if she wants me to hold it her answer of course is, "No." So I just remind her to hold the basket with both hands, and she does.

People that saw us in the store would comment what a big girl she was - and Astrid was all smiles.