Allie has a new thing to add to her signage repertoire: pointing. It’s used to draw our attention to something she’s taken an interest in (“Look mommy, a bright ceiling light!”), to indicate a desire (“I want that red cup, bring me to it.”), and to coerce some playful contact (“I point at you, you touch your nose or fingertip to mine, and you can either say ‘Boop’ if it’s your nose or ‘E.T. phone home’ if it’s your finger, I’ll smile at both.”).

Mr. W thought it’d be great to hand her a plush UCLA football, then get her to point at something overhead, so that she looks like she’s signing, “UCLA is #1!” So we turned on an overhead ceiling fan and just like a charm, she pointed repeatedly at it, fascinated. Then we handed her the football, a gift from Eddie (die-hard Trojan, of all things) and Michelle. Immediately she was distracted by the tag. Of course it went right in her mouth, and we tried lots of different tactics, changing up the timing of handing her the football, pointing to the fan ourselves, and this was the best we could do:

Her hand had dropped by the time the cameraphone took the photo. Oh, well.

In the car on Sunday, Allie looked up, pointing quizzically at the cabin light. So I thought I’d really impress her and show her something magical. “Light on!” I said, and flipped the switch to turn the cabin light on. She smiled. “Light off,” I announced, turning it off. She looked at me expectantly, then very deliberately pointed at the light again, leaving her hand in the air, waiting. “Light on!” *flick* Allie smiled. “Light off.” *flick* Allie looked up at the light again, then pointed up at it. “Light on!” *flick* “Light off.” *flick* *point* “Light on!” I announced, quickly regretting starting this game. *flick* “Light off.” *flick* *point* This went on for some time until I managed to distract her by pretending to loudly eat her foot.

Yes, we did go to Claudio’s girlfriend Jenny’s bday shindig on Saturday. Allie had a late nap, so we didn’t leave the house until after 4pm, arriving at 4:35p, and then wandering around the condo complex on foot getting lost for 15-20 minutes before finding the right place. The party was Hawaiian-themed and they put out quite a spread.

My parents had observed in photos that when Allie’s among strangers and feeling uncomfortable, she sucks in her lower lip tightly and doesn’t smile. She’s certainly doing that in these photos and clung on to me throughout the hour or so we were there, but we didn’t have time for her to warm up to everyone. We met the more important people, tho, like the birthday girl Jenny:

Uncky Andrae:

Tio Claudio:

Here’s Allie demonstrating the pointing thing, and it has the same effect on Uncky Andrae.

Allie: Look over there!
Andrae: Oh yes, I see…I think…
I got a good laugh out of how Andrae just automatically follows points, even a baby’s.
Unfortunately, the food came out late and we pushed Allie’s bedtime as much as we dared while we waited for Andrae (who said he’d overslept during his nap) to show up, but still missed dinner. We did have some ahi poke one of Jenny’s friends made (delish!) and Claudio’s BBQ’ed chicken looked and smelled teasingly delicious, too. It was 6pm when we got back to the car, and I zoomed back home, wanting to leave before Allie had a bedtime meltdown. She had a little fit in the car starting around 6:15p, upset that she was tired and not going thru her bedtime routine, yet, but went down fine by 7p when we got her in the house at 6:30p. Poor Mr. W. He was all hungry from the almost-dinner he had, but was piteously just going to drink water and play Diablo 3 for the rest of the night, so after I put the baby down, I made some noodle soup for dinner (not instant Ramen). He still got to spend the rest of the night playing Diablo, and I read myself to sleep upstairs.