we've got a talker

Every day brings something new in the life of Vera. Babies change all the time and I am loving all the things that Vera is learning and doing. She's had the typical baby talking noises for some time now, but just recently she's really found her voice.

Last week Vera and I met my mom for lunch. We were meeting at Noodles and Vera and I arrived first. I have noticed that while my natural tendency has always been to sit on the perimeter of the restaurant seating, that tendency increases even more when you have a baby. It's just so much easier to feel like you can explode with all of your things when you are on the outer edge of the restaurant. I scanned the eating area of Noodles. One man was sitting in a booth alone. Alone. No one else was with him. All that space was being wasted. Vera would have liked that booth. (Side note: I did give him the benefit of the doubt and think that maybe someone was joining him. No. No one joined him.) But alas, there was an empty table in the corner with four chairs. That would be nice, I thought. I started walking that way, trying my best to not hit anyone in the head with the large car seat/baby combo I was holding. Unfortunately during my polite trek to the back on the restaurant a woman beat me to the table. A woman who was alone. Seriously people? Maybe I should have suggested she join the man in the booth.

And so, Vera and I plopped down right in the middle of the restaurant. I sat her on a chair and started taking off her winter garb and getting out some toys and trying to keep all of our things as condensed as possible. All the while I felt like everyone was watching every move we made. I guess the positive of the story was that a woman about my mom's age stopped by our table while she was leaving and told us how cute Vera is. There's the positive of being in the middle of the restaurant -- everyone gets to see my adorable baby ;) My adorable, loud baby.

It was while we were sitting in the middle of Noodles that Vera really found her voice. In essence it was like she was yelling, but in a really cute baby way. But yelling nonetheless. I became extremely self-conscious that everyone would start looking at us and my adorable baby. I even tried to shush Vera but then immediately took it back because I didn't want her to think that talking is a bad thing ;) It got to a point though where I had to put her pacifier in because she was being so loud and babies just don't understand what it means to use an "inside" voice. We'll get to that sometime later.

I'm really excited to see how these "yelling" noises turn into words. I just love watching my daughter grow up :)