Living with the Queen

Kate has known how to wave for a while now. Like her crawling, she started backwards–she said “bye-bye” first and would use it for greeting people and for departing their company. And she used to just clench and unclench her fist to wave, which was probably my fault. In teaching her how to wave I think I over-dramatized the motion because I somehow thought it would make her “get it” easier (like speaking loudly to those who don’t understand your language).

Thankfully, despite my poor training, Kate’s waves have gotten much lighter and airier. She daintily moves her limp hand at the wrist with a bit of a regal air.

And there just aren’t enough people out there for Kate to satisfy her need for waving, so recently she’s taken up waving at things. She’ll wake up from a nap, crawl to the edge of her crib and wave at the books on her bookshelf. Or I’ll be changing her and tell her she can get down and play with her toys in a minute, and she’ll look over at the box of toys on the floor and wave at them. It’s her way of saying, “Don’t y’all worry! I’ll be right there!” Today she waved at the heating duct grate on the dining room floor, and at the Infant Tylenol. She’s unstoppable.

In a recent nanny interview Kate was being about as coy and sweet and charming as a baby could be. She was “dancing”–sitting up with her shoulders hunched and bouncing–while smiling at the Perspective Nanny. Then she decided to crawl off somewhere, and when she passed my desk she stopped, looked through the legs of the chair at us and gave her regal wave, then turned around and continued crawling off. I couldn’t have stage-managed a cuter set of moves. (Needless to say, a Kate-Love spell was effectively cast upon the Perspective Nanny.)

Friday we drove over to visit Ellen in the late afternoon on a wild hair (hare?). Kate was occupying herself in the living room as Ellen made tea and I tore through her pantry looking for something sweet and fattening. I looked in on Kate at one point and she let go of the stuffed frog she was playing with and took off to find another toy, then I imagine her internal dialogue to be something like, “Where are my manners?” So she stopped and looked back at the frog and gave it a little wave. Such a polite gal we have.