Before my lunch break ends, an update on Veronica:

She's talking. Kind of. We think.

What's happening now is quite a bit more definitive than the "Hi!" she gave me on October 4. But even then, are we just imagining it? Or is she really making a connection between seeing something and what it's called?

Here's the first scenario: She has this activity center. Picture a walker, only with little toy attachments all around it, and no wheels. Two of the attachments are rubber teddy bears. Every time she grabs one in particular, I've been saying "bear."

Now she grabs this particular toy, when placed in the center, and says "Beah." Over and over again. She'll even grab the other one, now a bear in each hand, and look at them both - although I think she's only referred to the second one as "beah" once.

The other scenario is when she first sees Pita in any given situation where the cat enters her sight: She smiles and squeals what sounds like "Iddy!" Which wouldn't be that far-out-there, considering we say "kitty" every time she's gazing gleefully at the cat. But she'll only say it once at a time, instead concentrating on grinning from ear to ear as Pita grooms herself or trying to reach out a little baby hand to grab some grey fur.

Oh, and she says "mama" and "dada" too - but only if you ask her to say the opposite. For instance, I stood in front of her today, cooing "mama. Mama! Mama." And she babbled a little bit, then looked up at me and said, very delibrilately:

"Dada. Da da da..."

And she does the same to Jason. I swear she's messing with us. :-)

OK, so I haven't posted in a while. But really, how am I supposed to keep track, when time keeps flying by and I just keep missing it?

I was kind of, but not really, watching VH1's "Spice Girls: Behind the Music" yesterday while Veronica started to doze off on my lap. It was just starting, and it was mentioning timelines of the Spice Girls popularity. Well, mention Spice Girls and I instantly think of living in southern California; you couldn't go anywhere at the time without hearing "Wannabe" or "Say You'll Be There". I've unofficially marked the time when I moved out there as the time I started really thinking of myself as an adult, when I stopped clubhopping and drinking as a pastime, when I got my first "real job," when I packed up and moved clear across the country - a pretty ballsy move for a 21-year-old from West Virginia.

And that's when it hits me: This was almost seven years ago.

Then I follow up with the thought: I've been living in the greater Columbus area now for five years.

I can't get over the time passing. Where the hell did it go? Sure, I can fill in the blanks, bringing up memories of different jobs, residences, and situations that help define what happened when. But it seems like I blinked, and "seven years went under the bridge like time standing still" (if I may quote OMD).

I've been undergoing a minor mid-life crisis lately, silly to think of at the age of 28 but completely real. I've been questioning decisions I've made, things I believed in, the roads I've taken and the ones I've passed by. Ultimately, I feel like things turned out for the best, as I'm the mother of Veronica and the wife of Jason. But I think I just can't account for that time flying by, and I'm panicking for what I might have lost along the way.

And all this, just because someone mentioned the Spice Girls.

What to update on Veronica?

The fact that she's almost sitting up now? Her newfound affininty for babbling and cooing, making "ba ba dab dab ab dab dab" sounds all the time? Her love of not only Pita but the babysitter's tiny new puppy as well? How about her shoveling down the solid foods, loving squash, cereal, spinach and mixed veggies and barely tolerating chicken?

How about the fact that she will lock her legs now into a standing position if you hold her a certain way? Or how she knows, every time she's in her activity center, that slamming her hand on the little plastic star will make it light up and play music?

How about her fascination with words, both stopping to listen when you speak and checking out the written word every time she sees it? Or her related interest in banging on the computer keyboard, recently noticing a cause-and-effect with what subsequently happens on the screen?

What about recently, when Jason took away a toy so he could get her dressed, and she cried because he took away something she wanted - the first time she's displayed displeasure at something other than pain, hunger, or the like. (I.E., the first time she's cried at not getting her way?)

What about the fact that, every day, she grows. Every day, she is less and less "just a baby" and becoming more of a unique little person, with her own personality. I never thought I could love her more after the day she was born, but I was wrong. She's like a page unfolding, and I love everything it reveals.

In other baby news: Zane went home from the hospital on Monday. He is back up to over 13 lbs. and is eating cereals and solids with formula mixed in for nutrition. He still requires the feeding tube, but Anne and Ben can administer that at home, with a therapist on such things checking in with them. He never did get the hang of a bottle, but he's getting big enough now that, frankly, I don't think he ever really needed to. I'm so happy and relieved that he's getting better. He is so strong too! Holding him when he wants to lean over and check something out is a workout. And he can stand very well, with support of course. He's good at strength, Veronica at babbling. We can already picture the two of them in a few months, Zane running circles around a seated Veronica, who will look up and say, plain as day, "Slow your ass down already!"

I guess I can sum it up to say all babies are OK right now. Thriving and doing well, actually. We really can't ask for more. :-)

Whee...

Updates on the photo page! Enjoy! :-)