This weekend there are plans for cake. The middle of March was tough this year. As a result, Fizzgig hasn’t yet had her first birthday party. And consequently, no cake. This is a wrong that must be rectified. With cake. And a late present from her folks. And some ice cream – boy does she like ice cream.

The ice cream is a recent development. We’ve been pretty lazy migrating Fizzgig to food because, despite the expense, formula is just so much easier than trying to deal with spooning color-coded slop into a flailing baby’s mouth while also meeting the needy demands of two other young children. Fizzgig has demanded that we change our strategy, however. She has six teeth now, three top and bottom but offset by one, with the next two on their way. While we’ve been occasionally tossing her snacky puffs for the past couple of months, in the last week or two she has decided bottles and such (at meal times anyway) are no longer worthy or her attention and are likely to be forcefully relegated to the floor. No, she wants want everyone else is having.

A few nights ago she had her first hotdog. She ate the whole thing, and macaroni and cheese, and probably some rice (because rice slows her down, Fizzgig needing to pick up each grain individually), and formula, and a few bites of ice cream. And she still wanted more. (Didn’t sleep very well that night.) So she’s a big girl now.

She took her first steps about a month before her first birthday. But apparently the experience didn’t meet with her expectations, because she didn’t make much progress after that. Standing was good. There are lots of neat things one can do while standing or from an upright position. Walking was neat, but only in a three-step-tourist sort of way. Crawling was far more efficient, and it worked just fine for the cats and dogs, who still hold the majority in our household. But then her attitude on walking changed too, and now that’s all she wants to do.

Her patience in dealing with her siblings and the animals is sometimes quite limited when she is toddling around, but it is really wonderful watching all three of the children when they are playing together. Boober is often a little too rough with her – it will be good when Fizzgig moves up another weight class or two. Meatwad usually starts out good but will then trend towards control and physical manipulation which is less good.  But Fizzgig lets everyone know, including the animals, if they have overstepped their welcome.

We were always amazed at how mellow and easy-going Fizzgig was as a baby. Being so close in age to her brother, we figured we were doomed. None of our kids have been difficult, and we figured we were due. But she was great. She still is. But now we’ve discovered the caveat.

While Boober is a stinker, with that infectiously cute dimpled grin, Fizzgig is a character – class clown perhaps. She loves laughing and getting laughs out of others. But she can also be cantankerous, when provoked. As this trait has matured, she has developed a temper and a tendency to yell at you about anything that displeases her. I have almost forgotten exactly how loud her brother was when he was a baby, but I do recall making a comment about his ability to melt minds. Fizzgig, while not as devastating with her sonic blasts perhaps, focuses her grating rage on specific targets, favoring calculated precision to her brother’s ‘shatter the cosmos’ style of attack.

But she’s not always disagreeable. One thing she has done for a while now, is when asked a yes/no question, she will nod her head in the affirmative. This response is appropriate, and contextually seems to accurately reflect her sentiments. What’s special about it is that it is a very deliberate, slow, exaggerated nod, her chin touching her chest, eyes very serious. Incredibly cute.

This past weekend she shook her head in response to a query. When tested, she responded in like fashion to a similar question, then nodded in affirmation of a different question. She can’t say ‘no’ yet, but she can say ‘no’.

There are 10 types of people in the world, and my youngest child can now nod her head with the first, and shake it at the second.