I think we can now conclude, per an earlier post, that Anya was definitely waving: on the flight over she spent ten minutes methodically waving to the sleep-deprived mother of the baby in the next seat to us, and she's been doing it ever since.
"Mama" and "Dada" also seem to have definitely settled on their proper signifieds, and since we've had Robs' dog Bonnie staying we're pretty sure she's added "Dog" to the repertoire.
On that subject, Anya *hearts* dogs. She thinks cats are pretty cool too, but Jasper has given her the cold shoulder for so long that she's transferred her affection to a species more likely to reciprocate it. Dogs, being noisy hyperactive creatures, seem better suited to a nine-month-old who spends most of her life crawling after stuff and squealing with delight.
This whole process, like lots of baby development, still feels as much like epistemology as empiricism. We spend as much time interrogating our interpretations of her behaviour as we spend interpreting her behaviour. But with time it gets easier, and I think we knew she was saying "Dog!" as soon as she said it. Though at the moment she's still a bit rusty on the consonants, and it's just possible that she thinks this 40lb sheepdog is a "Duck".
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