Are you in there?

These days are full of surprises and new developments. The surprises are cool and really scary all at the same time. Like when I put Tweetie down sometime this morning on the floor, pretty certain it was on her back. At this point she'll roll over, spin and push her way around the floor until she finds an obstacle, but I didn't expect to come back a minute later and find her sitting up in the corner! Bathtime found her exploiting the low-g environment of water to push herself from sitting to standing. And last week while the Goddess was here, Tweetie started saying something resembling 'khah-tah-khah-tah-kh' whenever either of our cats crossed her path. Of course, we then went to the Bear's dad's for almost a week where there were no cats, but a couple of nieces repeatedly asking, "Can you say 'cat?'" She fell quite silent, but seems to be warming up the vocal chords again since we came home. And it's still anybody's guess whether she'll walk or crawl first, as she's making steady progress on both. She even started grinding her five little teeth, which definitely surprised mem, though her dental hygienist aunt assures me it's nothing to worry about.
But tonight I added a new special moment that I just had to share. The Bear's out of town until the end of the week, and whenever we're apart we always check in at the end of the day to pray goodnight. Tweetie was asleep early tonight, and was still out when the Bear called, but a few minutes into the call she awoke in another small coughing fit. I picked her out of her crib to help her work it out, and when the coughing subsided briefly, I took the phone from my other shoulder and put it on speaker phone so we could keep talking. The Bear greeted Tweetie, and her face lit up with happy recognition, laced with a trace of confusion as she looked at the little speaking box.
I'd kinda suspected she was missing the furry face.