And Baby Makes Three

Innocent Exuberance: My Daughter at (Almost) 22 months

Her favorite food is macaroni and cheese.  Her favorite beverage is apple juice.  She's only tasted cake a few times in her life, but asks for it periodically.  She also really likes pizza, which she's also only had a few times.  The first thing she did the other morning was to say: "Want pizza?"  (She speaks in the interrogative a lot.) 

Her favorite tv shows are Dragon Tales and Sesame Street.  Her favorite music is her Dragon Tales CD, although she'll dance to a variety of things.  She dances with innocent exuberance.  It's the sweetest thing to watch. 

She's really cuddly and I call her my "bundle" because she'll try to fit her 35+ inches into the same space on my torso she filled as an infant.  She still likes to hold onto my hair when she's sleepy. 

Her favorite made-up game is "Go!" which she and her Daddy invented.  Basically, she says, "Go!" and runs down the hall to her bedroom.  The adult playing with her also says, "Go!" and pretends to chase her.  In her room, she waits to be tickled.  Now the adult runs from the bedroom down the hall, through the kitchen into the living room while G. chases behind.  This segment can vary at the end.  The adult can either hide and say, "Boo" (which causes much giggling) or can tickle G. again.  We tend to get tired of this game well before she does. 

Her favorite book of the moment is called "Emma's Pet" wherein the little girl searches for a big, soft, cuddly pet.  At the end she finds the biggest, softest, cuddliest pet she's ever seen -- her father.  It's very sweet.  (She actually learned how to say something is hers from this book -- last weekend she referred to her cup as "my cup".  She'd never done that before.) 

She is afraid of loud noises: the vacuum cleaner (da cleaner), the blender, the shredder, the fire siren.  She loves to climb and run and stand on things to reach higher (much to the dismay of her parents who have been putting things higher and higher ever since she learned to crawl).  She likes to scribble with crayons (called "craynies) and chalk ("chalks").  She likes to play the piano, sometimes just mashing big blocks of keys at once, but can sometimes be coaxed to play just one note or two at a time.  She tries to sing by jabbering in a sing-song way with made-up words.  She'll sometimes sit and "read" her books to herself.  She likes doing wooden puzzles and playing with giant Legos. . . and unfortunately also likes making like a tornado with the same items. 

We can't believe how old she is, how big she is, how smart and beautiful she is.  Being her mother brings me joy every day.

Nineteen Months Old

My beautiful girl is nineteen months old today.  My spouse anticipates these mini-birthdays and says things like, "She'll be nineteen months old in two weeks" or "She'll be two in five months."  I'm not exactly in denial about how fast the time is going by, but I try to live in the moment.

I was just reading the post I wrote in August and am amazed by how many more words G. knows now.  I'm working on a picture book for her that represents her first words, but I'm not going to keep adding to it, or it will be the ultimate moving target and I'll never finish. 

She says and understands: Mama, Dada, Nana, no, ball, sky, geese, toes, leg, arm, eyes, teeth, ear, hair, chin, shoes, boots, socks, shirt, cup, cheese, peas, toast, hot, yogurt (I've only heard her say this one once), water, hi, bye-bye, potty, Max (character on Dragon Tales), two, six, eight, ten, and a few simple phrases like: "uh,oh," "oh, no," "I get" and "Where's Dada?"  She will also try to repeat words that you say to her, but that she doesn't yet understand.  She seems to use language to "label" things rather than a communication tool.  She doesn't walk into the kitchen and say, "Cup" when she is reaching up for her sippy cup.  She has this little "I need something" sound she makes, like "eh-huh". 

Physically, she is like a little monkey!  She can get into and out of the Lazboy, onto and off of the couch, onto and off of the kitchen chairs.  She now understands that to reach something higher, all one must do is climb on something. *mock sobbing*  We keep the chairs out of the kitchen when we're not actually sitting on them; it's a pain, but better than having her get to everything on the table.  We can only use the center 1/3 of the table anyway because she's so tall.  Sigh.  One of her favorite things to play with is the remote control that comes on the car keychain.  It's kind of funny.  We get the remote back from her and have to either turn off the alarm or go out and close the trunk.  (It would be much less amusing if we didn't have an attached garage and had to go out in the weather to do this.)

Fifteen and a Half Months

My little girl is a happy girl.  She makes us laugh and smile every day with her antics.  She is cuddly and affectionate.  She'll press her entire face to your cheek to kiss you.  When I get home from work in the late afternoon, I kneel down and open my arms wide.  She comes right to me and puts her little arms around my neck for a hug.  She's beginning to say more words that sound like English.  She knows Mama and Dada and bye and ball for sure.  Sometimes she will say tree, or Pooh.  She said cheese as clear as day one night when she was having some to eat, but hasn't said it again since.  There are some favorite nonwords that she says all the time, like dubuhdubuhdubuh.  She loves her bath.  She's fascinated with the water coming out of the tub faucet.  She will splash with her hands or kick with her feet to make waves.  She plays with plastic boats, rubber whales and ducks and a rabbit and a frog.  I sing "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" to her or the Brady Bunch theme.  We're transitioning away from jarred food.  She's been eating "real" fruit all summer and now we're trying to get away from buying jarred vegetables.  But that means I've got to cook "real" vegetables all the time, which I'm not always great about doing.  Plus, she doesn't like "real" vegetables as much as the pureed kind.  We're working on it.  She still eats baby oatmeal because she needs the iron and I'm not sure how else to get that into her diet every day. 

My Baby is Almost a Year Old

I remember at this time last year the timeline on babycenter.com was moving ever closer to my due date.  This year it is moving closer to my daughter's first birthday -- this Saturday!

Nine Month Pediatrics Appointment

22 lb. 11 oz.
30.25" tall

9 Months Old Today

Our beautiful little baby girl is nine months old today.  It feels like a momentous milestone, since she's now been "outside" about the same length of time that she was "inside."  My husband took a picture of her asleep in my lap last night -- she's so long  now!  I mentally compare it to similar pictures when she was a newborn and can't believe how much she's grown.  We'll probably take her to have a nine month picture done sometime this weekend or next weekend.

She had a fever last night.  She's been coughing a little for a couple of days, so I guess the cold had progressed more.  We took her temperature (101.6) and gave her baby Tylenol.  She didn't sleep well at all, was up every hour to half hour all night long, so, of course, were we.

I was filling the dishwasher at 3:00 a.m. after I put her down to sleep.  I was awake enough that I knew I wouldn't fall asleep immediately and I knew we needed clean bottles, so I just did it.

Gabi at Eight Months

My baby girl will be 8 months old tomorrow. 

Personality: A little charmer most of the time.  Lots of smiles and giggles for Mommy and Daddy.  Almost always stops what she is doing to smile for the camera.   When she is excited, she bounces up and down on her tush.  When she is ready to eat, she's ready to eat. (This is not new.)  She's often fussy going down for a nap or to bed for the night, but usually falls asleep within a few minutes.

Activities: She spends a lot of time on her tummy, as she has for a while now.  She pushes herself up into the crawling position, but only succeeds in pushing herself backwards a little.  She "swims" a lot -- on her stomach with both arms straight out and both legs kicking with all of her might.  She turns herself around in circles while on her tummy.  She can sit up for a long time and very rarely falls over.  She can go from sitting to her belly, but sometimes one of her legs gets caught underneath (in a position few adults not studying yoga could attempt).  She has pulled herself up to her knees in the crib.

She loves: the colorful plastic boats she plays with in the tub, her exersaucer, her crawling Winnie the Pooh, her Playskool Bee toy, the floppy pink bear she sleep with, her Freddie the Firefly toy (a great toy for the car).

Things she would do endlessly if we let her: grab our glasses from our faces, pull (and chew on) my hair, play with tags, fringe, zippers, buttons, grab the remote controls or telephone.  I got home from work the other day and gathered her into my arms for a cuddle and a kiss.  I was wearing a cardigan and she sat happily in my lap playing with the top button of the cardigan for quite a while. 

Her favorite books: The Hungry Little Caterpiller (a longtime favorite board book), Lucy the Lamb (has a squeaky toy lamb embedded in it), Peter Rabbit (vinyl), First Animals (new for Christmas)

She wears: size 12 month sleepers and some size 18 month clothes.  She's almost off the chart for both height and weight (as of her last appointment). 

Six Months Old Today

My beautiful girl is six months old today.  She's grown so much and is so much fun.  After her first bottle of the day she didn't want to be in her crib, so we brought her into our bed for some cuddling.  She's wildly amused by our hands and fingers; she'll smile and even giggle if you wiggle them for her.  She coos when she's happy, or makes the wettest raspberries known to mankind.  She can grab toys with both hands and hold on to the item for a while.  Then she gets distracted and just lets it fall from her fingers.  She's working on sitting up on her own.  She can sit unassisted for a few seconds, longer if she's supported by the boppy pillow.  The last two times we took her to a restaurant (family-friendly, of course) we put her in the restaurant-provided high chair instead of carrying in her infant carrier.  Yesterday, her Daddy went to BabiesRus and bought two bigger car seats.  She's getting too big for her infant carrier and seat.  We're hoping to be able to sell the carrier and two car seat bases that we no longer need . . .   More soon -- I'm on vacation this week and will actually have some leisure time to do a few things, like blog.  :-)

Separations

A little over three months ago my daughter was still safe and warm in my womb. When she was born and the umbilical cord was cut, the separations began. Before we left the hospital there were times when we weren't in the same room together, when she had to go for a test or a bath. Before the first month was over, I had left the building she was in to go to the library for books or the convenience store for a soda. Within the first two months I left the village where we live to go to a movie with my husband and to do the grocery shopping alone; those trips were a few hours in duration. Last week I had to return to work and be away from her for ten and a half hours, between the work day and my commute.

It was hard, very hard. I had been thinking about this newest separation off and on near the end of my leave. Thankfully she is with her daddy during the day and not at daycare; I feel happy knowing she is getting loving, individualized attention. But that first morning I cried a good share of the way to work and wondered how I was going to function.

What happens is that once I am in my office, it's like slipping into a comfortable old shoe. I have her picture on the shelf beside me and many pictures of her in my screensaver program. I think of her on a more surface level, instead of thinking specifically and deeply about how she felt when she fell asleep in my arms last night or smiled her beautiful gummy smile when I changed her this morning. But suffice it to say that every time I am away from her, she is never far from my thoughts. When I return to her and scoop her into my embrace I feel complete again.

Two Month Appointment

Gabrielle had her two month appointment this past Thursday. She weighs 13 pounds, 3 ounces, and is 24 5/8" tall; that places her in the 90th percentile for weight and the 97th percentile for height. Her sweet little head circumference is only at the 50th percentile, so I hope it catches up to the rest of her. (Moms always have to worry about something.)

She is currently taking 32-36 ounces of formula a day, despite what all the baby books say (that at her age she should be eating a maximum of 24 ounces). Some babies need more food, according to the pediatric nurses I've asked. At the appointment I asked the pediatrician about introducing cereal. Again, according to the books, you should wait until the baby is 4 months old before giving her cereal. The dr. said that they don't usually advocate starting cereal at this age because it is not as nutritionally dense as formula, but that if we wanted to give her a little bit, it would be ok. He said to just make sure it was rice cereal. So, I think I will buy some today and see if she likes it.