It's been another eventful month and my list of things to write about is currently at 24 items, so without further ado....
I noticed several weeks ago that you were putting one of your small balls through the center of your rings. It fit just perfectly and I watched you put it in and take it out several times and I thought what a smart little girl you are. You totally figured that out on your own.
When we are in public, you are an observer. In any new situation, you sit back quietly and take in your surroundings for a long time before you open up and start to play, talk, etc.
Daddy bought you baby yogurts in several different flavors and I tried and tried to get you to eat them but you spit them back out every single time. Finally one day I was having an afternoon snack of my own yogurt while you played on the living room floor. You were of course very interested and came over and started climbing on me trying to see what it was. I told you that you wouldn't like it but you persisted, so finally I put a tiny bit on the tip of my spoon and offered it to you. As I waited for you to spit it back out my jaw dropped when you swallowed and immediately opened your mouth for more. You continued to open up for more until we made it through the whole container. Ever since that day, we share all of my yogurts.
You have started dropping the food you don't want on the floor. You try to be discrete, but you're really not. Sometimes when I tell you not to throw food on the floor, I later find that you started stashing it next to you in your seat instead.
Not long after the food started going on the floor, you started throwing lots of things on the floor. Mostly your toys when you are confined somewhere that you don't want to be: the high chair, Pack N Play, car seat, crib, etc. You do it with a certain defiance. I just pretend that it doesn't bother me and hope it's just a phase.
You like to let me know when you are enjoying your meal. You sit in your seat feeling very content, feeding yourself, all the while making "mmmm mmmmmm mmmmm" noises as you chew. I love it.
You have a way of running in place while laying on your back. It's not just a little leg kicking, but a full-on run. It's most common during diaper changes and after bath, but perhaps the most adorable, hilarious, and yet the most frustrating, is when I try to lay you down in your crib. You will be 98% of the way asleep and if I disturb you at all while laying you down, those eyes creep open and if you see me there, you immediately break into a sprint. You do it with such vigor that your hair is actually flopping on your head and you have the biggest smile on your face.
There are baby handprints all over the sliding glass doors in our living room, and they make me smile.
We continue to enjoy Gym & Swim at the YMCA on Saturdays. And it exhausts you. A couple of weeks ago, after a particularly rough night, YMCA in the morning, and too short of a nap during the day, you actually fell asleep sitting in your highchair before I could even get your dinner ready for you. We reclined the seat as far as it would go and left you there for an hour before I decided to just move you straight to bed, fully dressed and without dinner. And you slept great that night.
On January 26th you let go while standing for the first time. Since then you started doing so more and more. At first you would sit down or grab onto something as soon as you realized you were standing on your own, but just in the past week you have started to stand there a little longer like it's no big deal. And yesterday, during gym class you stood for a couple full minutes at least while we were singing songs and you were distracted. Even other parents in the class were impressed. :)
On January 28th your bottom left tooth finally came in. This is your 5th tooth and, to date, has caused you the most trouble. You weren't overly fussy but it seemed to hang out there right below the gum for a long time and you started sleeping better again as soon as it broke through, which I feel confirmed my suspicion that your sleeping woes are often teething related. There is another one threatening to come through on the top now and, sure enough, you're not sleeping well again either.
You now know not only that you can open the closet doors on your own, but exactly what's behind them. You know where the diaper bag is in Mommy & Daddy's bedroom and often go to it and pull out the wipes and travel bibs. In your bedroom you know that behind the door is the bag with clothes you've outgrown and as far as you're concerned, that seems like it's good for playing, too.
Some of our most normal tasks have become quite the challenge for Daddy and me. I feel like I need 6 hands for a diaper change these days. You seem to fight us on just about everything these days: diapers, clothes, high chair, you name it.
When you are doing something that you're not supposed to, I start by telling you not to do that and explaining that you might get hurt. If you continue to do it anyway, when you know you're not supposed to, I eventually pull out my stern voice to let you know I mean business. You think this is wildly funny. I'm pretty sure you and Daddy have teamed up on me on this matter.
For the most part everything we feed you are healthy foods. Lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, cheese, yogurt, etc. However, we've let you try a few treats as well. Daddy gave you a taste of a white chocolate Hershey's kiss a couple of weeks ago and when we had marshmallow Rice Krispie treats for our Super Bowl party, I let you eat pieces of those a couple of times. You thought they were great.
I have discovered that some of the more slippery foods are easier for you to eat if I cut them into narrow slices as opposed to small chunks. They're also easier for you to pick up if I stand up the slice on your tray. As a result, lots of your foods are now deemed sharks. Banana sharks, strawberry sharks, mango sharks, kiwi sharks, you get the idea. They look like tiny little dorsal fins swimming around all over your tray.
We had a super bowl party a couple of weeks ago and after some of the guests were playing with you, you finally started waving a little more regularly. You still don't do it really consistently, but at least sometimes you do. You mostly like to wave to yourself in the mirror behind your carseat or the reflection in the windows. For a couple of days you also developed a little circular motion with your forearm that Daddy and I called "let's get this party started." It didn't last long, but it was funny while it did.
We have been "playing ball" with you. We roll you a ball and at first you would either bat at it or pick it up and sort of throw it in our general direction, but now you usually pick it up and hand it to us. This has been lots of fun for you and for us too! You've also started putting other things in our hands. Sometimes when you're eating you and I will hand a piece of food back and forth a couple of times before you decide to put it in your mouth.
At breakfast, our deal has always been that if you finish all of your cereal you get the bowl to play with. You used to finish almost every day but since we started finger foods you don't like being fed from a spoon so much anymore and it's fairly rare these days. Last week one day you earned the bowl and were playing with it as I got you some fruit and as I started putting the fruit on your tray you were picking it up and putting it in the bowl. I just thought this was cute. Since then I've noticed you putting things into containers like that more and more.
We've had to completely rethink our nap schedule. You were consistently missing naps and the naps you were getting weren't good quality sleep. I finally figured out that if I shifted your whole nap schedule back about an hour you would sleep longer in the morning and sometimes even go to sleep better in the afternoon. Right now we just take it day to day, but you've at least been getting better sleep in the mornings. Some afternoons you nap and some you don't, but overall we're doing better than we were a few weeks ago.
Because daytime sleep can be such a challenge, when you fall asleep in the car, I don't like to disturb you. As a result, I've spent a fair amount of time sitting in the car while you nap. I finally got smart and put a book in the glove box so I can relax and use time for me to recharge as well.
You are a baby so everything goes in your mouth. One of the weird things is that you are always putting individual loose hairs in your mouth. You pick them off the floor, off my clothes, off wherever you can find them. I often find you with single hairs sticking out of your mouth. I am not sure what the appeal is, but you seem to love it.
Other times you actually pretend to pick things up and put them in your mouth. Sometimes you will pick at things that can't actually be picked up (like a splatter of paint on the floor) and I think you think you've got something. But other times we're fairly sure you do it because you know it gets our attention.
Sorry for the really long post. There's just so much going on with you these days it's hard to stop! Sorry also for the lack of photos. I will post them in a separate entry as soon as I have time to sort through them all.
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