Today has been an exciting day for Lilli. We had a whole bunch of family over for dinner, which was very nice, and we were all sitting around encouraging her to crawl. No go. She tried awfully hard and she did the side splits but she just didn't seem to get it. Then, like twenty minutes later we were putting her to bed and sitting together on the bed and trying to get her to crawl again. All of sudden, it was like a lightbulb went off and she started to wriggle and lift her bottom and there she was crawling backwards! When not twenty minutes ago she couldn't figure out how to get her bottom in the air! We were very excited and cheering her on, but she didn't have a lot of incentive to go forward, so (this might sound weird, but we were trying to think of what would be the biggest incentive) I got on the other side of the bed and got out the trusty old boobie and she IMMEDIATELY tried to scramble in its direction. She didn't manage quite crawling forward but by wriggling and sheer force of will she did manage to get quite a bit closer to it. By then though she was so frustrated with her goal so close that we gave in and helped her the rest of the way. Then she drifted off the sleep. . .

I think I will try to get her crawl towards the phone tomorrow. She LOVES the phone. I was on the phone a lot today and it made her so mad that I got to play with it and she didn't. When I finally gave it to her she was so happy and pleased and just turned it over and over in her hands, gazing lovingly at the buttons and occasionally giving the antenna little kisses. What she loves best though is to talk on the phone. If I'm on the phone, usually she gets fussy because I'm not paying her all of my attention. If I get the person I'm talking to though to talk to her she immediately gets quiet and listens really hard and starts to smile and then usually eventually tries to eat the place the voice is coming from. Yesterday she talked to my grandma calling from Japan and was so focussed on that phone and smiled so big and kept saying "ah!". Then my Aunt Linda talked to her this morning: Lilli was crying because I was talking so I put her on and immediately the biggest smile and then a rare laugh! But then boy was she mad when I had to take it back. She doesn't understand sharing yet.

I will keep you updated on any new crawling developments. I bet she's crawling in a week!