December 26, 2004

Autumn Milestones

We haven't been doing a great job of documenting all the new things that Dorothy has been doing in the last couple of months, especially since it seems like she learns something new practically every day now. Here's the roundup of her recent accomplishments, as compiled by both Tom and Elizabeth:

Mobility

The big news on this front is that Dorothy is crawling pretty well. She sometimes uses both knees, and sometimes still crawls on the right knee and left foot, but either way, she makes good time now. She can crawl over some obstacles (like toys, people's legs, and non-mobile babies at daycare), and sometimes will "tow" a toy or shoe with her as she moves. She keeps trying to crawl off the edge of the bed, but so far has not succeeded (at least not without someone hanging onto her ankles to keep her from actually bonking her head). She loves to be "chased" by a crawling adult (especially Daddy), playing "I'm gonna get ya!" Today, she started chasing Daddy, too, all the way from the kitchen to the back of the bedroom!

She still wants to walk (with someone holding her hands for balance), and has started to throw mini-tantrums if Mommy or Daddy sit her down too soon (they're pretty cute tantrums now, but I'm sure we won't think so in another year). She pulls up to standing on anything that she thinks might be strong enough to hold her, including the safety gates, the couch, the chair, any handy pant legs, Tom's clothes rack, the laundry basket (she's tipped that one over, but it works if an adult holds it for her).... She's especially good at standing up in the playpen in Daddy's office, and has started to work her way around the edge while standing. Once she's gotten to standing, she can stay that way with only one hand, and will wave the other around or grab for toys. She sometimes lets go with both hands, but doesn't stay up long yet when she does. Tom keeps telling her that balance is the key to being able to stand and walk without needing our help, which must be the reason she keeps trying.

Sleep

Sleep continues to be the one problem area as far as Mommy and Daddy are concerned, but it's been getting better. Dorothy's bedtime is now around 7PM, and she usually sleeps at least until midnight (occasionally waking to fuss for a few minutes around 10PM, but that waking seems to be going away), occasionally making it until 3AM. She "wanders" all over the crib at night, often ending up in positions that we couldn't sleep in! She has been waking to eat around midnight and 4AM for the last few weeks, and we're currently working on eliminating the 4AM feeding. Right now, she often will stay up for a long time at 4AM, fussing whether we go to her or not, although sometimes a bottle of water will calm her enough to go back to sleep. She still reliably wakes up bright and chipper at 6AM or earlier, causing us to wonder where the "morning person" genes came from.

She is still queen of the 40 minute nap (an improvement from the 30 minute naps of the summer), but occasionally will go for 60-90 minutes, or even 2 hours if she's snuggling with Mommy or Daddy. She also will go a bit longer between naps - she gets sleepy again anywhere between 2 hours and 4 hours after the last one. We're just starting to work on transitioning her down to a single, longer nap mid-day, in anticipation of starting in the Toddler room at daycare out in Seattle at the end of January.

Food

Dorothy has been trying lots of new foods, as she gradually reduces the amount of breastmilk she gets (especially during the day). She nurses in the morning and evening, and takes one big bottle in the afternoon now, but otherwise mostly eats "solids" in the daytime (three meals plus a snack or two). She detests carrots, but otherwise will eat almost anything she's offered (at least if she's hungry), including yogurt, rice cereal, oatmeal, chicken, beef, turkey, lamb, peas (grudgingly), pears, apples, bananas, and her favorite, green beans. She's starting to eat a few "unstrained" foods, including teething biscuits, apple and pear slices, and her other favorite, Cheerios. She particularly likes feeding Cheerios to Mommy, although she will sometimes change her mind on the way to Mommy's mouth and eat them herself, instead, then giggle.

She's not terribly interested in feeding herself most things, although she will happily smear strained food all over her face and high chair if she gets the chance. She does like to pick up and eat the Cheerios and fruit slices. She also started drinking water from a sippy cup a couple of weeks ago. Actually, she seems to mostly want to chew on the spout, but she does seem to get a reasonable amount of water into her (in addition to the puddles on the high chair and floor, and soaking her bib). If handed a spoon with strained food on it, she will put it in her mouth (usually), but we think it's more to chew on the spoon than to get the food. But she does get the food that way, too.

Other stuff

Most of Dorothy's favorite toys are not really designed as baby toys, of course. Top of the list is still the cordless phone, but she also enjoys pulling all the shoes off the shoe rack, crumpling and chewing on the phone books, and any paper she can get her hands on. She is obsessed with trying to get the cat food, but so far has not been allowed to succeed. She got a toy cordless phone for Christmas, which is not as good as the real thing, but was at least the only toy that she preferred to the box it came in on first sight.

She's started "sharing" her toys - she will hand us a block or other toy, and watch us "play" with it. She particularly likes to see Tom juggle her blocks (although she's not a discriminating watcher of juggling - she'll happily watch Elizabeth throw one block back and forth, even if she misses regularly). She'll usually accept the toy back if we offer it to her, but sometimes hands it right back to us again.

"Disappearing" games are also favorites. Peekaboo never gets old, and she can play herself now, pulling a blanket over her head, waiting long enough for us to say, "Where's Dorothy?" and then yanking it down again. She was fascinated when Tom started hiding a ball up his sleeve, and kept trying to pull his sleeve down again when he wanted to stop playing. She may not be talking yet, but she can communicate "again, again!" with crystal clarity.

She's making a lot more sounds, with more intonations. Common syllables are ma, wa, ba, oh, hi, ay, and yai, but there are plenty of others that occasionally crop up. A week or so ago, she and Elizabeth were looking at Cobalt, and she turned to Elizabeth, announced "Oh-bah," and then turned back to watching the cat. So we think that Cobalt has beat out Mommy and Daddy as the first creature in the house to be addressed by name. Around the same time, she was sitting in the exersaucer saying "bababababa" while Elizabeth was in the kitchen. Elizabeth called "babababa" back to her, and she angrily said, "BAbababa." Elizabeth then looked into the dining room and saw that she had her ball, and asked, "Are you playing with your ball?" Dorothy gurgled back happily, "bababababa." So we think that that was an initially misunderstood attempt to say "ball," although she seems to use the "ba" syllable for a lot of things.

The most traumatic development for Tom has been Dorothy's social development at daycare. Specifically, we've heard that she's developing a strong attachment to Ian, so strong that she's kissed him. Apparently one day when he was lying on the mat with his head up, minding his own business, she leaned over, and planted a kiss right on his lips. Then she looked around to see if anyone had spotted her. Tom plans to start shopping for his new shotgun soon.

Posted by Tom Nugent at December 26, 2004 10:03 PM
Comments

If it is too traumatic, me and a few of the boys will fly out and talk to this Ian.....make sure he knows how to treat a young lady like Dorothy.

Posted by: Tom at December 27, 2004 01:23 AM
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