Baby news. Yesterday, the banana, i.e., the first non-cereal food ze bébé has tasted. I popped open the top and tasted it. Lee saw me. He was grossed out that I tasted it. Not because of any supposed spit contamination (not that I stuck my tongue in it or anything), but because it was baby food. The tard. It tasted like strained bananas.

I served it up with warmed cereal. It went down all right, a little thicker and a little stickier than normal cereal. No trumpets played at the sound of yet another milestone being sighted, approached, and passed--victory! To tell you the truth, I was a little let down that it went so well. Today she ate the bananas straight. Even better.

The day before yesterday was the first day I knew for sure that Ray could recognize color as a concept. We were reading her baby colors book before bedtime. The first page is "red." Red tomatoes, red rose, a baby in a red jumper pointing to a book with a red car, red fire engine, red, red, red. We only got the book a couple of days ago, but we've read it before. Open the book, turn to the "red" page. She starts slapping the page, breathing heavily, drooling, and putting her fist in her mouth. Sure signs of excitement. Then--and this is the cool part--she grabs a stuffed animal, CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG, and repreatedly bangs his head on the "red" page of the open book.

She doesn't give a crap about the rest of the pages. Except maybe green.