Thursday, August 28, 2008

Adi at 11 months

Dave realized that Adi has a 'theme song'. It's difficult to transcribe, but it like eh-ehem or mmm-ahem (repeated). She sings it while she's playing or eating and will sing it back to us if we do it. But she seems less delighted with music than she used to be- she'll still bounce up and down to 'dance' in place, or twist side to side while standing when I hold her hands, and loves it when I dance with her in my arms- but singing rarely gets her to stop crying like it used to.

Ever since she saw her first dog, Adi has been fascinated with them. It's difficult to hold her when one is near because she tries so hard to get out of my arms! There was a dog at Dave's uncle's house in Vermont where we spent a lot of time and Adi would crawl directly to her, then stop when she was about in touching distance, looking a bit unsure of herself. She would eventually touch the dog's foot although I had to stop her from pulling at her fur.
Her fondest for animals seems to extend to the soft toy variety; she now goes to sleep cuddling the 'sleep sheep', which is about as big as she is and, when we hand her a stuffed animal, she almost tackles it to cuddle it and looks at us with such delight, like "how did you find him?!"

One of Adi's favorite activities is being chased. We crawl after her, saying "I'm gonna get you!" and she scrambles away, then chuckles when we do get her. She likes being tickled and turned upside down and likes it being kissed and generally having someone's face close to hers. One day when I was changing her diaper, Mae kept laying her head on Adi's stomach and Adi thought it was the funniest thing ever. She also just learned how to "kiss"- lean in and touch her mouth to my cheek. She won't do it all the time but I really am trying to encourage it! She can also blow kisses but it isn't obvious because she puts the back of her hand in her mouth, instead of pressing her palm to her lips.

Also recently, she started handing toys to us (although only occasionally lets them go) and is raising her hand as a precursor to pointing at things. She is not shy about taking toys away from Mae but she gets very upset when something is taken from her (or when I prevent her from stealing). Since she was about 4 months old she's had a 'phase change' cry where she just suddenly bawls like she was stung by a bee-- mouth wide open, face bright red, not breathing. At first she did it when a stranger was holding her but it seems she's learned it's a pretty good way to get what she wants or get sympathy when she takes a tumble. I'm not sure how I'll know when she does get stung by a bee.

Her sleeping has been pretty good- she sleeps deeply and goes down very easily. We often hold her and sing to her right before bedtime and sometimes she just struggles and pushes away. It's hard to let go when you think she needs soothing, but when she's ready to sleep that all she wants to do; she'll roll onto her side and snuggle into her sheep and we won't hear another peep from her until morning. She is also fairly utilitarian about breast feeding-- when she's done she just rolls off the pillow (I sit on the floor now to facilitate this) and crawls away to play.

She's been eating solids pretty well lately-- often we just stop feeding her when her enthusiasm wanes, because she'll never reject the spoon. She likes peaches and other fruits, oatmeal, carrots and canned beans. Tofu, lentils and zucchini are not high on her list and when I gave her a bagel chip yesterday she didn't seem to even try to eat it. She can do the sign for 'more' and has an adapted version of 'all done' (which involves making a certain noise, too). She is still just noisy; in the evenings she has a kind of constant whine that can drive us crazy. The theme song is much nicer!

Playing with the butterfly buttons on her dress

I have lots more pictures to go up soon, just haven't pulled them from the camera yet.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Mae at 11 months


Crawling on her right fist; Mae's typical method

Meredith decided to celebrate her 11-month birthday with a big milestone: she took her first step on Monday! She was cruising along the couch with one hand on it and Dave suddenly noticed that she was walking. It was only a step or two and she didn't seem to notice... and she hasn't done it again all week, but we are still excited.

She continues to be a delightful baby; even when she's crying she'll pause to point at something and ask "Da?". She's become more reliable at pointing to things we ask her: Daddy, Mommy, Adi, pictures, the pillow,... And she's picked up the sign for milk, although I feel bad because we feed them on a schedule, so I don't necessarily respond to her demands. She is quite impatient when it comes time for milk, often crying in frustration on the nursing pillow while she waits for me to get Adi set up and ready. From the beginning she has been a vigorous breast-feeder-- I call her my piranha because of the expression she makes, like she's afraid it will be taken away from her-- and now she likes to hang out for a while, too. I wonder if it is her way of getting the cuddling she needs, since she doesn't really ask to be held at other times.

She also has been going through a difficult time going to sleep, sometimes wanting one of us to rub her back or sit by the crib until she finally drifts off. Her naps have been short ever since we were on vacation two weeks ago, and I'm hoping it is just a phase. I'm not ready for her to go to one nap a day, and even though she is generally happy, she does break down in the evenings more than she used to. But her nighttime sleep is generally long and uninterrupted.

Her infinite capacity for strangers (or rather, capacity for infinite strangers) seems to have been reached. When we were on vacation for a wedding in Dave's family, she broke down several times when someone was holding her and wasn't calmed until Dave or I took her back. Being tired and out of her element probably didn't help but it was drastically different from 2 months ago, with the same group of people, when she seemed to thrive off of the many people and new situations. She has also become more affectionate in that time period, often laying her head against someone (now including Adi) to cuddle.

During meal time, she might have a tray full of food but be signing for 'more', which means that she wants something else (usually cheerios). She gobbles up tofu but turns her nose up at pinto beans. She is eating anything now except for nuts and I'm so glad she doesn't seem to have allergies- I was worried because of her sensitive skin and possible rash reaction to oatmeal early on. Generally she eats well but the last few days she's been quite inconsistent in what she turns her nose up at. And I've been battling her about her bib: she likes to pull it off. I hope she's just doing it when she's full; I know babies are supposed to be inconsistent in how much they eat from meal to meal... and there is really no chance she's going to starve anytime soon, but I still have a hard time ending the meal if she hasn't had very much.

Mae likes physical play a lot: being swung up high by Dave, spinning around fast while dancing, "flying" especially toward Adi; and lately she's gotten a kick out of me rolling her over and over on the floor. She likes it when stuffed animals "kiss" her. When playing with toys, she seems to have a strong preference for having two of the same toy, one in each hand. Maybe it is a sense of symmetry? We were given two small blankets that she does some sort of routine with- holding one up in each hand, putting both down on one side of her, turning over them, then doing it again. And she just recently started to nest a few bowls that we have, always putting them together.

On vacation, Grandma Coleman taught her to blow kisses. When eating she had started placing her fingers flat against her mouth and now she'll say "mmm" and move her hand away to throw the kiss. It is very endearing. She can also 'click' her tongue... and last week I taught her how to whisper, which was so much fun. You don't see 'whispering' on the milestone charts but I was quite impressed! She's also understanding lots of words- when I described something yesterday as a 'hair band' she reached back to touch her hair. She'll try to put a hat on her head and I've even seen her pushing a shoe against her foot, like she knows where it goes.


Playing with her stuffed animal (while camping)
Examining the stem of a squash. I didn't *think* it was edible...

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Camping


Last weekend our karate school held its annual Summer Camp, this year in the mountains near Bailey, CO. After a hot summer, it should have been nice to escape to the mountains... but the weather forecast was for rain, thunderstorms and cold.

Luckily, the rain paused when we arrived, giving Dave time to put up the tent while our karate Grandmaster helped with the girls. The tent was large and very nice, courtesy of Sensei Dan, and the girls had so much fun crawling around it. A big, red playpen! It was a little less fun once they had their snowsuits on (although so cute-- thanks, Amy!) since they had more trouble standing and crawling around, but Adi kept venturing off to her favorite corner. Mae spent a lot of time pointing to the ceiling of the tent and asking 'da?'


The night was pretty cold so the girls ended up in our sleeping bags to stay warm. They seemed to sleep alright and it was great to wake up snuggling together. After some more heavy rain, hail, and lightning so close that we decided to hang out in the car a little while, we decided to call it a day and come home. But it was fun to know that camping is indeed possible with our little ones, perhaps when we can be a bit more choosy about the weather.






Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Expressions

Have I mentioned the expression Adi makes when she's getting upset? She scrunches up her face and breathes in and out quickly through her nose.
Mae started doing it too
and we've turned it into a kind of a joke. When Adi does it, we do it back to her and then Mae starts doing it and pretty soon (if we're lucky) Adi is laughing with the rest of us.