Look Ma, no hands!

Our latest news is that Adi has started letting go when she's standing. She'll hover for up to 15 seconds before either plopping down or grabbing back on. You'd think she would do it when she was already standing up, but her method of choice seems to be crawling up to a person sitting on the floor, straightening her legs and pushing herself to standing using the person as a prop. Here she just pushed off of Dave:



This is a bit surprising as Mae is the one who likes to 'walk' with someone holding her hands for balance. We have a little footrest on wheels that she uses as a walker- pushing it around the room. This works great unless Adi is on the other side of it, then they both push until someone gets run over.

Mae has also gotten more resourceful around the gates... we have an armchair right in front of a book case as part of a 'gate' and she will crawl onto the lowest shelf of the book case and slide along behind the chair to get to the kitchen.

Her favorite method of interaction is offering us things. "Dis?" she'll say, holding up a toy, washcloth, hat, or anything else. It is repetitive but very cute... although she will often take something away from Adi and give it to me. "Oh, thank you for the block... shall we give it back to Adi?". If Adi didn't get so upset when something was taken from her, the game would go on for hours.

And she's really into pointing. When she's not handing me a toy over and over, she's pointing to some vague corner of the room and asking "Dat?". At least, that's what I think she's asking. Yesterday we got a very definite response when Dave asked her "Where's Mommy?" and she pointed right to me (with an endearing smile).


Both girls are really exploring their environment. They love crawling under the desk and trying to stand there (it's too short for them). Dave and I laughed a lot watching them try to retrieve a ball under the ottoman but they eventually got it. The swivel chair is a bit unpredictable but hasn't caused too many tears yet.

A few more pictures

Mae, Dave & Adi

Mae and Adi find great delight in trying to get past the laundry basket. Their security breaching skills got too good and now we have a real gate.

Mae pulling up on Adi's crib.

Singing and signing

Crawling is pretty easy, it seems. They will both come down the hall to the nursery if we call to them, although there are lots of interesting diversions on the way; sometimes Adi just heads straight into our room without even looking into the nursery. They are both standing up a lot and doing some cruising. Adi is much better at sitting down by herself, too. And Mae even tried to climb this shelf in their nursery: she really wanted those books, I guess



When Adi is making lots of grunting noises and I say "how about some nice sounds" and sing to her "la- la- la- la" she'll sing a few syllables with me. She also likes to click her tongue-- and will beam with delight if we do it back to her-- and smack her lips, which her Grandma Bundy taught her to do when she is asked for a kiss.

Mae has started to babble: suddenly last Saturday Dave noticed that she was saying a lot. She points to things and repeats "ah-da", or "te-te-te". She really likes to point at the ceiling, as well as to things with a "dah" sound that seems like she's asking what 'that' is.

Both girls seem to know the sign for 'all done' (although not particularly accurately). And I think Mae is using 'more' spontaneously to get more rice puffs. ('All done' has been more difficult, because if we ask if she's all done, she'll do the sign and then we don't know if we should stop feeding her or not. She'll still open her mouth for a spoon, and still make the 'more sign' if we ask her if she wants more. So I'm not sure she gets the idea really.)

In general, Adi has become more adventurous with strangers and not-seen-enough friends; she'll occasionally smile at someone she doesn't know and is doing well with the other babies and mothers in a play group I've started going to. Mae is still outgoing but she's also showing more affection than she used to: it isn't uncommon for her to crawl over and lay her head on Dave or my lap.

Togetherness

The girls have finally discovered each other. They'll wave and say 'hi' to each other and smile and laugh back and forth and copy each other. As soon as one of them starts banging on her high chair tray, the other one does it too.

Tonight at dinner, Mae was wagging her head and Adi tried to do it by shaking her whole body side-to-side. They took a long break from the meal to point at each other and touch hands, then laugh and do it again. And after breast feeding, they spent over five minutes reaching toward each other and laughing-- both the jake-brake fake laugh they use and real giggling (the most I've ever heard from Mae).

Since they are both mobile now they also crawl to, on and over each other. So far there isn't much perception about personal space and we're getting more and more complaining when one pushes the other down in an attempt to get past, or grabs a handful of hair or ear or cheek. I'm struggling with how much to moderate their behavior toward each other-- I want them to learn to be gentle with each other (and other kids) but also be able to defend themselves and their toys, especially from other kids.

Their mobility and interest in each other is particularly challenging during diaper changes. It's hard enough to try to clean up a twisting, crawling, grabbing-at-the-diaper-or-the-wipes-or-the-trashcan baby but when her sister is either taking the toy that is supposed to distract the changee or grabbing her hair or the dirty diaper, it's downright impossible. I've sometimes resorted to changing them in the laundry basket because it keeps the changee still and provides enough of a barrier that the other can't do too much damage. Most of the time I try to get one of them interested in the exersaucer first, so I can trap her there, and even when that doesn't work sometimes they just get stuck complaining for a while.

But please don't think I'm complaining. Maybe I'm still on my 2-babies-x-2-hour-nap high from this afternoon, but it is *so* much fun right now. They are changing every day and having so much fun with their new skills. I'm trying to get a picture of them crawling down the hall when it's time to go read books in the nursery-- I really feel like a mother duck with her ducklings-- but the camera is never quite in the right place. Like right now: it's in the nursery where they are sleeping so I can't post the picture I took today of them banging on the upside-down laundry basket which is serving as a gate for the moment. (It won't last long, since Meredith has been expending a lot of energy trying to breach it).


Here's a picture from last week: Dave and I re-tiled our entry while my parents babysat (multiple days) and the girls found it fascinating to watch us working. (Adi's on the left, Mae on the right; in their 4th of July dresses from Grandma Coleman).

Adi at 9 months

Adi's journey to crawling has been largely in reverse. Just last Friday she started to make actual forward progress but for a long time she was pushing herself backward and ending up sitting. (The picture is an attempt to capture this motion). This was quite frustrating for her although she was ingenious at getting around doing what my dad named 'tush turns': going from sitting to hands and knees, then pushing back to sitting on the other side. I started this post last Thursday and have had to revise this paragraph about 3 times because she keeps changing what she's doing. Now she is definitively crawling- no army crawl, no tentative movement, she just started doing it. And rather quickly. Maybe it's a coincidence but she's also been exceptionally happy and easy-going this week.

She has been pulling up to kneeling, including in her crib, and once or twice has stood up. She will stand holding onto something if I set her up. And now she is starting to 'step' her feet if I hold her up to walk, although she likes moving the right foot but not the left.

She continues to love sounds and we try to come up with new and different ones for her. She'll repeat a "sss" or "thhh" with a big smile. She says a lot of "na na" and "da da" and a few times we've thought that she was referring to Dave with "dada" or me with "mama" but I'm not too sure. In the last few days she's been smacking her top lip in a way that I can't repeat, and will click her tongue or clear her throat if we prompt her to. When she's starting to get upset she squishes up her nose and mouth and breaths in and out really fast; she'll start laughing if I do it back to her.

She is waving "hi", but not "bye bye." (Adi's wave is horizontal whereas Mae's is vertical: for any geeks out there: their waves form an orthogonal basis that would allow us to form any wave if we could only figure out how to linearly combine them!) She has picked up on a lot of casual sign language: so big!, peekaboo, night night (she'll rub her eyes or lay her head on the floor). And she likes clapping a lot-- I think that's where the wave came from.

I was under the impression her first word would be mama or dada but no: it seems to be duck. She loves the rubber ducks and says duh when she sees it. And this morning it sounded like she said hi back to Meredith and ba ba when Dave was leaving for work.

As I said above, I've been writing this post for a week now so I'm going to put it up even though I'm sure I'm forgetting things. They are changing so fast that it's hard to keep up!

Mae at 9 months

You can see from the picture what Mae's biggest achievement is: she started standing! We stayed at a hotel last weekend with the best thing she ever saw: a mirror to the floor that she could crawl right up to, see herself in, 'climb' up to standing and even lick! (Yes, all those smudges are from her). She's been pulling up on coffee tables, the couch and me and now can sit down by herself, too. And just today she 'cruised' sideways a few steps.

She is also crawling now- really crawling, not just the army crawl. She still isn't very fast but she is *very* pleased with herself for getting around. One time, Dave was putting Adi to bed in the nursery and he heard Mae giggling in the living room; when he went out to see what she had gotten into, he found her crawling down the hall toward the nursery, just happy she could get around. And now when I breast feed the girls, I bring Adi to my 'nursing station' and just call for Mae to come for milk-- she crawls over and pulls up on the pillow.

Her comprehension and motions have really taken off, too-- she waves 'hello' and 'goodbye', claps with hands flat enough to make a (small) sound, throws her arms up high to throw the patty cake in the oven. I think she is trying to make the sign for 'all done' although it looks a lot like 'so big' (and she hasn't used it except in mimicry yet, so it's not actually useful).

Oh- and we are convinced that she is actually saying a word. She chirps "hi!" when she sees herself in the mirror or, more rarely, when one of us walks in the room. There aren't many consonants in her speech yet but we have heard a few "ah-goo" sort of sounds.

And she remains exceptionally social. Last weekend we traveled to Boise, Idaho for the wedding of Dave's cousin Mandy and Mae positively thrived off the large number of people to wave at, smile at, sit with, be fed by, be held by, be bounced by, oh and did I forget to mention wave and smile at? She had a lot of fun with Grandma & Grandpa Coleman and all the aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and strangers.

Some more things I just thought of: When you ask Mae "What does a lion say" she growls. Then you ask "What does a duck say" and she growls again. Mean ducks around here! Sometimes she growls to say 'hi'.

She's also rolling a ball on the floor and although it looks random, it often comes straight to me. She still does have to stop to chew on it occasionally though.