Smiles and Waves

Julia absolutely loves people (and judging by how often we are stopped when we go out, people love her too). She stares at them everywhere we go. She's been doing this for a while. But she recently learned to wave at people. Now people smile and wave back at her bringing her new joy. (I also like it because her waving has seemed to keep strangers hands at bay without my intervening.) This past week and a half has been really exciting for her. She "met" lots of family (sorry, she didn't remember you from Christmas), all of whom were absolutely delighted with the fact that she could wave at them. She waved and smiled so much and NEVER got tired of all the attention it brought.

I don't know if having all of these "strangers" holding her, cuddling her, and interacting with her made her more social around actual strangers or if we are just seeing more of her personality come out, but she was thrilled with all of the people at the airport on Monday. Every person she saw got a smile and a wave. She even won over the TSA security agent checking our ticket. She smiled and waved almost non-stop while we waited to board. The people sitting across from us were reading newspapers. We couldn't see their faces, but they got many smiles and waves. The people passing by our gate all got smiles and waves. Only one or two even glanced our way, but they all got smiles and waves. A 13 month old little girl got smiles and waves. Julia waved and the girl said hi and Julia waved and the girl said hi.... this went on for a while. As we boarded the plane, the flight attendants got smiles and waves.

Once we got seated, took off, Julia ate, napped briefly, and awoke, she noticed the third person in our row. She smiled and waved. He didn't look over. She started squealing at him, leaned closer to him, continued smiling and waving. He never once looked over and she didn't give up the entire trip. At one point she was trying so hard to get his attention that I think she was upset that he wasn't looking at her. She did make friends with the people behind us though. They not only got smiles and waves, but Julia played peek-a-boo with them. The flight attendants loved her and stopped by many times to check on her (they even gave Micah and I an extra cookie). On our way off the plane, she even got a smile and wave from the pilot. She smiled and waved at everyone we passed as we went through the Denver airport. As we walked on the moving walkway, she waved at people coming towards us who were not on the walkway. She was thrilled when a Frontier Airlines employee saw her and gave her a huge "HI!!!".

It went on like this til we got to the car. The people standing across from us on the tram to baggage claim, the people waiting for their bags, the people sitting across from us on the shuttle on the way to the car, the guy driving the shuttle. Absolutely everyone got a smile and a wave. And if she couldn't find someone to wave at, she waved at the furniture.