Impressing strangers

Yeah, I know.  It's been awhile since I've written a post about Reese, life, religion, something NOT football. I get a little excited when football season starts.

Reese is growing up quickly, it seems. Every day is another eye-opening achievement. Yesterday she said, "I love you" more clearly than she has ever said it before. She repeated it this morning to Amy as she went to work and again to Grandpa over the phone. There was no need to try to decipher what she said. It was clearly, "I love you."

She is able to jump, getting both feet off of the ground. And she sometimes lands on both feet when she comes down. Sometimes. She really enjoys jumping up, stretching her legs out in front of her while in the air, then landing on her rear and thighs and legs. She thinks it's fantastic. I must confess that I think it's pretty awesome as well.

Reese loves to climb. The other day Amy found her halfway up the back door, holding herself up by the  door handles. She pushed her high chair to the kitchen island, climbed into the high chair, stood on the high chair and grabbed a pen from the middle of the kitchen island. obviously reprimanded her for putting herself in such a dangerous situation, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't impressed. It was some nice engineering for a toddler.

I am getting a little worried Reese is becoming addicted to my iPhone. I truly think she may be on it more than I am. OK, well that's not true, but she does play with it often. She knows how to unlock the phone to turn it on. She knows how to scroll to different pages. She knows where the games are she can play. She knows how to open the games and knows how to play the games. I wonder if some social scientist somewhere has given  a chimpanzee an iPad filled with ape-friendly games and study how quickly the animal understands how to use the tablet. Am I saying Reese is smarter than a chimp? I'm saying she's smarter than most humans!

But Reese is still as cute as ever. I am convinced she is the highlight of other people's days (she is obviously the highlight of my day!). Last weekend, Amy, Reese and I went out to diner in Portland. After dinner we walked about five or six blocks to grab dessert. It was the last nice night Portland was likely to see until possibly Easter, so there were quite a few patrons eating outside while our little family strolled the sidewalk. You could see dates stop their conversation, look at us, smile and then nod to each other. When we walked back after dessert, most of the same people were still outside soaking up as much Vitamin D while it was available for free. Again, they would stop and look and smile. One lady stopped us to repeatedly tell us how cute she thought Reese was. While it got a little creepy, she was sincere. I could envision her the next day on the phone with a friend of family member saying, "Yeah, John and I went out to dinner last night. The food was good and it was great weather, but you should have seen this little girl walking past us! Oh, you would just die! She was the cutest thing I have EVER seen! Oh my goodness, she was just soo adorable!" It's nice to know Reese is making good first impressions on strangers.