Sometimes it seems like a few weeks at a time pass before Jess learns something new and then suddenly she'll learn a whole bunch of new things all at once and I'll be sad that I didn't get time to enjoy each one seperately.

- she has learned to give things to other people.

this was followed rapidly by developing what I'll call the "psyche" manuever - holding something out and then snatching it back as soon as you touch it.

- she has learned to take something out of her mouth after putting it in.

this is very handy, since previously when I saw the piece of string/bit of plastic/piece of cat food go into her mouth, I had to fish is back out. Now when I say "What are you eating, there?" she sticks her hand in her mouth and pulls out whatever it is for inspection.

- she has learned to campaign.

This is a two-fold learning process. For one, she has learned to stand behind something (like the coffee-table) and babble loudly, making gestures and waving her arms around and looking exactly like a presidental campaigner and say absolutely nothing that makes any sense. Secondly, she's learned that if she if she wants something she's not supposed to have, she has to distract you first. By, say, spilling her milk on the floor and while you're cleaning that up, she'll get up on tip-toes to steal your hershey kisses. My daughter, President of the United States. I can just see it.

- she has learned to play nicely with the cat.

The cat gave her a wicked set of scratches on her hand the other day after she pulled his tail and now she's being very very gentle with the cat when he'll deign to go near her. Some people might think we should punish the cat for that, but you know what? He was here first, Jess needs to learn that not everything in the world is nice, and as long as he's not peeing on my bed out of jealousy, the cat is doing nothing wrong.

- she has learned to help with dressing herself.

In other words, she knows to pull her arms down after we pull the sleeve over her hand, or to reach up when we're putting a shirt on. This is very, very helpful. On the other hand, she's also learned that there's interesting stuff in her dirty diaper that we don't want her to mess with, which makes her more curious about what's in there... and you can just imagine the mess. Or maybe you can't. In either case, I suspect she's gotten good at the dressing thing because she's going through two outfits a day sometimes.

- she has learned about doors and that there is interesting stuff on the other side of them.

In this way, she's much like a cat, always on the wrong side of a closed door. Of course, for her, this means any door - cabinet doors, VCR doors, the baby-gate. Things open and close (well, except 90% of our stuff is locked) and she thinks this is very cool. When the baby gate is open, she'll charge down the hallway at top speed headed for the bedroom. (this is highly amusing to watch). Sometimes she'll look over her shoulder and crawl faster if she thinks I'm chasing her.

- shoes are very interesting.

I have no idea why, but she loves to play with shoes. My shoes, Kevin's shoes. She'll play with the laces (or untie your shoe if you're over here visiting.) or take the inserts out or fill them up with cheerios.

It's been interesting, watching her develope... now, if she'd just figure out how to take out the trash...