We've been back from the states for almost two weeks, and its indicative that I am still telling time that way.

I'm sitting at Iola's nannies' house writing this; I'll upload when I get home. Iola has changed a lot in the past month -- that maturing pre-frontal cortex, processing emotions -- I wouldn't say she is exactly cunning (yet) but you can tell there's a lot going on, real pathos and delight...

Object permanence is one of those things baby developmentalists talk about, it sounds so unnecessarily technical, and, I'm noticing, not all-or-nothing. I think she's had some form of it though they say it really develops around 18 months. I notice when she's sitting in her car seat and twists her head back to look for me even though I'm out of sight and not making any noise: she remembers that that's where I should be, expects me to be there, and is reassured when she makes eye contact. Last night while we were watching the movie Defiance with Peter she woke and cried and waited in her lizard push-up position until I opened the door. She was looking at the door waiting for me to appear. Is that object permanence? Seems like it but I don't really know.

I uploaded two videos last night, both taken in the morning on February 8th. One is of her playing on the mat with Jackson nearby, and in the other she is eating her first whole banana (a mini one from India). She puzzles over the taste adorably. Sometimes seeing things on video almost lets me see them better; must be the rewind option. In another couple months I guess I'll look back on the videos and think: look how bumbling she was. What adroit dexterity?

I have her on an alternate vaccine schedule, developed by doctor Stephanie Cave, so I have to bring her in to get her next set of shots tomorrow. The vaccine debate is an interesting one, with autism only occupying one small part of the debate, but in the end I decided that I don't want iola to freeload off the herd immunity of other people, and that I am, in the end, more afraid of polio and hepatitis than the imperfect vaccines themselves.

We have moved from the "Bumps and Babes" social sub-group of Abu Dhabi Mums to the "Inbetweenies," but I went to a B&B meeting one last time this week because it was at a friend's house nearby, while the inbetweenies meeting was out in Khalifa city. And I realized that she is a lot bigger than a 2 month-old! She wasn't exactly bigger than some of the 4-month olds (there is something in the Abu Dhabi air, miracle-gro-like), but she was downright witty compared to them. I think she made some of them feel insecure with all her sitting and grabbing. She even tried to poke a little girl's eyes out good-naturedly. Two of the babies were born in the same week as my sister's baby Gwendolyn, so I could imagine her still in the drunken baby stage.

Still no teeth. Does she know her name? What does she dream about? My job has gotten a lot easier as she grows. She prefers sitting up to lying so much that I can leave her to just sit, while I do other things nearby. She really likes that plastic jar, though -- if it rolls out of range she gets annoyed -- one of these days the crawling lightbulb will go on. Last summer I thought I'd go back to work when she turned 6 months, so I'm mulling that over. I don't think so, though, yet.