Mark the day, April 21, 2008, Zooba was liberated. By Zooba I mean Keana, and by liberated I mean the railing of her crib was removed—again. We tried taking the rail off months ago, but it was really too soon. Keana actually requested we put the railing back on the first time we tried it, so we did- waiting for just the right day, just the right time for total liberation. With the advent of full potty trainage in March, the time seemed right. So Monday night (4/21/08) Keana and I got out the toolbox, got out our screwdrivers, and tore down the proverbial wall of oppression. I almost heard faint echos of David Hasselhoff floating through time and space from 1989 Berlin.

It’s been almost a week and everything is going great with the new-found freedom and responsibility. Keana even gets up and pees on her own in the middle of the night, though she still calls me down in the wee ours of the morning for a social visit disguised as some bathroom-related need, but we’re working through that.

Then there are the piercing screams that now fill our home and our ear canals. Sometimes long but usually short, they are startlingly loud and high pitched, especially when you realize they’re coming from Maia (a.k.a. Deedles). Maia is definitely figuring out her voice and communicating. It’s gone in several phases, first, in early April she would make these gasping sounds that really worried us at first. We still aren’t 100% sure if they were allergy related or what, but my thought is that it was just a new noise she discovered she could make. Second came the lip buzzing coupled with spit-bubble blowing. If you responded in like fashion she’d flash a huge grin. Now what’s happening are the war cries. Very loud and very funny. Deedles is definitely not going to let Keana run the whole verbal show. It is so amazing seeing these beginnings of verbal communication develop. In conjunction with this, we’ve also seen Maia really start to reach for things she wants, and of course put them in her mouth for further exploration. The girl loves to stand as well, and even though we still support her as she learns to stand, we can feel her lunge and actually take steps toward a desired object. She also loves to jump up and down and then look at you with this excited look-what-I-can-do grin. Maia is definitely on track to be another amazingly mobile and communicative member of Team Hokama.