More Teeth!!!

Last Thursday Amelia sprouted two more teeth! [The better to chew the ottoman with!!] The ones on either side of her two front teeth are coming in like little daggers. And I think she may be getting one on the bottom to the right of her two bottom teeth, but it's too early to really tell - and Amelia doesn't exactly cooperate when you're trying to check out her gums.

And there's more poundage! I took her in today for a weight check and she is 17 lbs., 5 oz. This is up a pound and four ounces from July 20th. I went ahead and made her 12 month check-up for a month from today. She gets shots then, too. Ouch!

[picture dated 8/25/06]

Crawling!

Two weeks ago today Amelia started crawling! Like most babies, she worked her way up to it. We had weeks of “roll and reach”, then finally some pushing, but backwards. Then she was doing this foot and knee thing for a couple of days – she would creep on all fours, but one was a knee and the other a foot. Then on Saturday, August 12th, she crawled! It was only for three paces, but she did it! And she’s been doing it ever since. We are so proud! And I am sooo relieved. I just didn’t want her to go “straight to walking” as everyone was claiming she might do. I wanted her to have the coordination and problem solving milestones of crawling.

She is having fun, too! Not only is she thrilled that she can move around the house and discover strange new worlds, but she has this little game she plays with herself where she will toss as toy about a foot in front of her, crawl to it, toss again, etc. And of course she’s trying to pull up on things. She’s really good at kneelingwhich gives her just enough height to see over the ottoman and grin maniacally at me.

This milestone also means the floors have to be kept super clean since, of course, everything goes in the mouth. She is so adept at finding little pieces of carpet that the cats (read here: Maynard) rip up. Those just aren’t part of her nutritional needs, something I’ve tried to explain to her. Needless to say, I’ve gotten pretty good at the “finger scoop”. If I even think there’s something in her mouth, I say, “Amelia, do you have something in her mouth?” She just looks at me. I approach her and before I am within range she pops that mouth open for inspection. But I am not fooled so easily. I go ahead and swipe that momma finger, being VERY careful to start at one cheek, hooking my finger across her tongue (behind existing teeth) and quickly moving it to the other cheek. Sometimes there’s something there and sometimes there isn’t, but little missy never tires of seeing if she can manage to bite down and get some flesh (with those very sharp teeth!) during the inspection.

[pictures dated 8/26/06]

11 months old today!

I can't believe Baby Girl is 11 months old today. She started crawling - finally - just over a week ago and I haven't had time to post about it yet.

Here is a picture that features one of the things I love about her - the way she crosses her feet. It's so darn cute! Whether it's in her swing, the car seat, while I'm feeding her or while she's sitting on the floor contemplating a toy, it's just one of those neat things about her.

[picture dated 8/15/2006]

Raising 'er right

We are huge Kentucky fans, University of Kentucky Wildcats - basketball, that is. While I was still pregnant I bought several UK things for our little one on eBay. Amelia has worn each of them as she has grown into them - and there are things waiting in the closet for the next growth spurt.

When she was less than a month old, she hung out with Daddy and watched "Midnight Madness" - although this past year it was called "Big Blue Madness" since it was not held at midnight. She was properly decked out in a Kentucky bib and headband. She has been to Rupp Arena, but only once since "if it breathes, it needs a ticket", and tickets are hard to get. Besides, we decided it was way too loud in there for her. (The 'if it breathes' is verbatim from the ticket taker who asked me if I had a baby in my sling. We were shocked to learn that little 9 lb. Amelia, who would remain in the sling and therefore be practically a part of me for the entire game, would require a ticket.) She has also seen the Lady Wildcats play Wake Forest at William Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem (where she did not require her own ticket at 3 months of age). Recently I brought Amelia to work with me and her new mobility allowed her to explore a little and play with things that interested her. I take her choice of a toy as a good sign that the Kentucky bug is being passed along just fine.

[pictures dated August 10, 2006]

She's so Nosy!

Amelia almost never misses a thing. She notices and observes everything, or so it seems. She especially likes cars and trucks that go whizzing by. If you're holding her, she will about fling herself out of your arms as she tries to follow path of the truck.

When we're visiting Nana and she sees something that catches her interest, she will look with that very earnest expression, craning her neck and even pushing off of whomever she is on, to get a better look. Nana will then exclaim, "She's so nosy!" in that fun way of observing what a baby is doing. It's really such a funny phrase and it cracks me up every time!

There's another "Nana saying" I really like. During or after one of Amelia's rather enthusiastic outbursts of babbling or just plain delighted screaming, Nana will say, "Ohhh, such a dainty voice!!!" Amelia does have a dainty voice - she just doesn't always use it. It's her dainty voice that I really love to hear, so quiet and soothing. But I equally love her expressions of joy and excitement and I hate to quell them, even in a restaurant full of diners who probably don't appreciate her forms of expression as much as I do. In those situations I reluctantly distract her with a Gerber puff which so far is foolproof. Even if she has both hands full with a toy, she will drop something to grab that puff which immediately goes into her already open mouth. There's no passing "Go" and no collecting $200 for this puffaholic!

Raspberries are another one of Amelia's favorite forms of expressions. The puffs don't always work to stop these as the puff can easily be inserted into the mouth with only a moment's cessation of the raspberry already in progress. So watch out if you're in the splash zone!

[photo dated February 18, 2006]

Those teeth!!

Oh, Amelia's teeth are coming in and she is discovering what she can do with them. One of the cuter things is how she will take one of her socks that has somehow found its way off her foot and put it in her mouth, clamp down and pull. This makes a strange sound as the sock leaves her still-clenched teeth, a sound which produces a very silly still-clenched-teeth grin from my little one. Then she can't help but open her mouth for a little giggle, whereupon she re-inserts said sock for another round. Too cute.

Another thing I've noticed for the very first time is that when she eats her little Gerber puffs there are crunch noises that come from her mouth! It's amazing just how many firsts there really are with a baby.

She's teething again. First we noticed the suddenly increased amount of drool. Then she started chewing on things again, including her fingers. She's discovered that rings work really well for chewing on in such a way that they touch her gums but don't interfere with her existing teeth. She is SO smart!

And she has also discovered that it's easier to hold things in her mouth sans hands. This makes her look like one of the cats when they've found a mouse or mole outside and come trotting up to the door fully expecting to bring it inside. Not so cute. But still kind of cute. I mean, how can anything she does not be cute?

Moving and Grooving

Amelia's on the move! She's still not quite crawling, but we're getting there. See?!

And she is really getting around in her crib. When I put her down for naps she likes to play a little (like 15 minutes) and then *silence*. I go in and she is face down, usually on top of whatever toy she had been playing with. This guarantees waking up with some pretty funky bed face! And I've watched her from a distance. Essentially she rolls around grabbing toys, then rolls to her belly and plays and reaches. Gets a little tired, puts the head down. Pops the head back up and plays some more. Plops the head down and there it stays. So cute!

Since she is rather ambulatory, I've put the rail on her crib in the "up" position while she sleeps. It's too high for me to leave up for the next time I have to put her in. But up it goes after she's in and so when it's time to get her up, I stand her and then pick her up. Well, she thinks this is an excellent opportunity to dance in celebration of waking! You can't tell in the picture, but that's what she is doing. Such a happy baby!

Oh, and her new thing? Scootching to the TV cabinet and opening the door! Open, close, open, close. She is sooo talented! And then she'll double roll over to the window and reach up and scratch the screen. She finds the noise fascinating.

Irish eyes?

Many people say Amelia has a great smile. And she does. Aunt Jennifer really hit on the reason why, I believe, when she observed that when Amelia smiles, she even smiles with her eyes.

[picture dated 7/26/06]

Clapping!

Amelia started clapping yesterday! And she thinks it's great fun! I picked her up from daycare and as we were leaving, she started clapping. We've been working on it since her 9 month check-up. The doctor said she needed to clap so she knew what her hands can do. That seemed odd to me since she already was transferring toys from one hand to the other, grabbing everything in sight without any perceivable eye-hand coordination issues, picking up small things in a pincer grasp, etc. But when I mentioned to the doctor that Amelia was doing this sort of flail that including hitting her chest when she got excited and happy, she pronounced that clapping needed to be learned. So Nana intensified the "Patty Cake" sessions, complete with arms being thrown up for "roll 'em in the pan!!!" - Amelia's favorite part - and a month from that appointment we have clapping! And like every newly discovered skill, she's a pro all of a sudden and wants to do it as much as possible. This includes while nursing which is really kind of funny! If her hands aren't close to one another - and usually they're not because one is wrapped behind me, she will stop eating, sit up and clap a few times and then go back to eating.

The clapping has already transferred itself to her "I'm a cow" book which has a little squeaky toy type of cow on it. That was the book of choice for bedtime reading with Daddy last night. The cow is supposed to be squeaked whenever "I'm a cow" is said in the book - which just so happens on each page. She was all about hitting that cow with her flat palm (and getting a good squeak!) rather than using just her index finger as she had been. Good thing we don't have a dog with a love of squeaky toys like Uncle Stephen does or that would have been one challenging book reading session!

[photos dated 8/1/06]

And then there's Enthusiasm!

Amelia's enthusiasm is marvelous to watch, especially when it's combined with her sense of discovery. She immediately notices if there is something new near her or if she is in a new environment. Even something like the kitchen floor gets an intense inspection. First she pats the floor with her palm, then she rubs it a few times, then she rubs it with enough intensity to produce a squeaking noise, after which she'll look up, hand still on the floor, with this delighted whole-face smile as if to say, "How wonderful!" She also really enjoys the texture of the fabric on the chair and ottoman in our living room. Things like that also get the scratch test. Early on when she was discovering things, she would use her fingertips in kind of a clawing motion to feel things. She'll still do that, but now I think it's because she likes the sound it generates on things like fabric.

When she finds new objects she'll pick them up, look closely at them, give them a little wrist action to feel them out and then she'll go into the full arm shake/wave while breaking out into a huge smile and a few "huh huh huh"s matched with a kind of sit-dance. Sometimes she even dips and bobs her head a little and looks like she's rocking out or something.

And she is so affectionate. She will dive bomb my neck or the side of my face with these open mouthed smile kisses and then start laughing. She'll then right herself, look at you and duck her head down so you can kiss the top of it. If you aren't fast enough, she brings it to your chin so you can help but kiss it. She'll lift her head as she laughs and then duck it right back down. Nana started this with her several months ago and I believe it's one of her favorite games.

[photo dated 7/24/06]