Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Ana and the Soccer Ball


Ana seems to have grown again over night. I don't mean in height though she has gotten taller. I should really say that she seems to have matured over night. When I got home yesterday from work, Ana was more mature, more alert, more "talkative" and even casual; relaxed in her conversational tone of babel. Yes, relaxed conversational babel; it's adorable and delightful. Though she had said her first clear word some time ago, she has not spoken in clear discernible English or Spanish since and so we have decided to enjoy that experience as a fantastic talking anomaly and are expecting to again enjoy the first word experience with Ana some time in the future. I wonder what her first word will be the second time around. Well, as I was saying about yesterday; Ana has matured. She is still a baby but at a next new phase of baby-ness. She looks with clarity. She moves with purpose. She is more confident. Though she was never lacking in confidence; there is noticeably more confidence in her possession now.

Tami had also texted me while I worked yesterday that Ana was now kicking around the soccer ball. Cool. When I got home after a late meeting, Enzo was asleep but I did get to spend some time with my daughter. Besides being able to see this new level of maturity that she has developed, I also got to see her kick the soccer ball. It wasn't just a kick of the ball. She is dribbling the ball; kicking it one foot after the other, controlling the ball and moving along with regular short kicks without stopping her progression across the whole room. It was so cool to see this little baby dribbling the soccer ball; a baby that was just learning to walk for any distance a couple of weeks ago. Like Enzo did when he first got these soccer balls as gifts from my coworker Linda, Ana kicks the ball and takes it to the end of a room and then calmly bends over, picks up the ball, sets it down in a new direction, and goes off again as if these biomechanic accomplishments were no big deal and not the absolutely impressive success of physics and human biology that they most definitely are. My super star. She is amazing. Because she is still so young, all of this happens in comparably slow motion and allows one to savor the beauty and adorableness of my gorgeous girl as she walk-kicks a ball across a room. I will try and stop next time to get video. This time, it was too difficult to stop watching.