Friday, January 25, 2008

room to grow

Like most things in our life and our house, we've gone through quite an evolution since Sara was born. Her room is starting to reflect it too. I've rearranged the closet and her dresser a number of times as clothes come in and out, or to find the perfect homes for socks and other things that I need to grab without looking, like wipes.

Special gifts and handmade items are also finding their perfect spots. I made these paint and fabric canvases recently, and I'm so happy with how they've turned out. The Bert and Ernie needlepoint was a Christmas gift from Grandma... she made it over 30 years ago for the boys!


On her dresser is a collage I made while I was pregnant... a stuffed elephant from S&C's trip to Thailand... a Tiffany (!!) piggy bank from Aunt H.'s dad, and a framed photo of our first trip to a beach this past summer... Special keepsakes for a special girl! And, some nighttime necessities like her pacifier plus a backup, as well as our awesome version of a nightlight: a one-touch closet light that we dimmed with a washcloth draped over it.

Monday, January 21, 2008

bookworm

If I haven't mentioned it before, Sara loves to read. Seriously, I mean she REALLY loves her books.She even reads in the tub to relax after a busy day...
She loves turning pages, and every night after dinner I pull out three books for her to choose which one we read first. The other two stay close by so that she knows she'll get to see them as well. We cuddle on the couch, and often she wraps one of her little arms around mine (leaving one free for page-turning, on course!) Among her favourites are the Wombat series ("Sometimes I Like to Curl Up in a Ball", "Swim, Little Wombat, Swim!"), Boynton's "Opposites", "Picture This", and "The Hungry Caterpillar". She also mastered the various tactile activities in "Pat the Bunny" in short order.

I love that she adores her books. Not only does it make me feel better about the times she's exposed to TV, but I look forward to years of us reading stories and going on imaginary adventures together!

Friday, January 18, 2008

getting around

I've spent most of the week fighting off a winter cold/sore throat, and catching as much time on the couch as possible to rest up. Staying home when I'm sick used to mean hiding under a blanket in my PJs, watching hours of daytime tv or Gilmore Girls DVDs, emerging only for another hit of Tylenol, food, or tea. This routine is somewhat more difficult with a 9 1/2 months old scooting around! I also realized that although it hurt my throat to talk earlier this week, it was all but impossible to NOT talk to Sara. She's incredibly verbal and would not take well to one-sided conversations!

She is, however, great at hugs and so far that's the best medicine. I even relaxed my 'no TV while Sara's awake during the weekdays' rules to give us Oprah. Surprisingly this worked to our advantage with Sara's sippy cup. She has been holding the cup to her mouth but not tipping her head back to actually drink anything... until she wanted to look up at something on Oprah, that is. Her goal of watching TV got her to look up and tip her head enough to drink some water! So apparently TV is not ALL bad for babies.

At the beginning of the week I thought well, at least Sara is still stationary and she plays independently, so I can supervise from the couch when I'm feeling really lousy. But wouldn't you know, after weeks of only rocking and pushing backwards, she's discovered how much fun it is to slide herself all over our hardwood floors! She can really go and it's funny to watch, but requires constant supervision. She sometimes rolls over suddenly and bonks her head on the floor unless I slide my hand under it. Or, she inadvertenly scoots herself under the playpen or couches...
This morning she made a great breakthrough, one that I clapped and cheered for... as I've mentioned before, Sara is very cautious about trying new physical moves. She has great balance and is a pro at sitting, rolling, and pushing up... she just hasn't been able to transition herself from one to the other unless she flops over. Lately she's been really frustrated with herself, which is hard to watch. She leans tentatively on one hand and then sits up again with a fearful look on her face, sometimes crying out like a baby version of swearing. I try to help, slowly guiding her through the movements, which she sometimes appreciates. Other times she protests loudly and arches her back (a throwback to when she wasn't ready to sit up...)

Then today after breakfast, trying desperately to reach one of her plastic shapes, she did it... she gingerly leaned forward... put her weight on her hands... and pushed herself over her legs onto her tummy. It was almost like Tai-Chi the way she slowly figured it out. What an accomplishment!

We play upstairs on carpet too, but for downstairs I think I'm going to lay down a few more foam squares until she gets the hang of it all. She needs more space without risk of hitting her head on the hard floor. I'm also not sure how to clean our hardwood floors now that she moves around on them.... dry sweeping doesn't seem like enough, but I'm not sure I like the idea of her touching any residue from my usual Swiffer wet jet. Anyone have any tips? I haven't found any all natural floor cleaners by Method or Life Brand, though maybe Seventh Generation makes one? When I tried to remember that brand name I was calling it Seven for all Mankind... but while I'd love a pair of their jeans too, the only way they would be cleaning my floor is while sliding around on my ass to follow Sara!

p.s. I just don't have the energy to tell my retail story anymore... I'm getting over it, but maybe next week I'll recap.... for now, perhaps just think twice before ever shopping here.

Friday, January 11, 2008

finger foods!

On Wednesday we had a milestone of a lunch... Sara started feeding herself!

I put some pieces of toast on her tray as I had been for a few days, and as she picked them up she started doing the cutest thing - she decided to feed ME! She held out pieces to me and said 'hmmm?' with an expression like 'try some, Mommy!' I opened my mouth and ate the toast, causing her to wave her arms and giggle like it was the greatest thing. Completely adorable. We played this little game for a few minutes, and then suddenly it happened - she put a piece in her own mouth! I clapped and cheered for her, so she did it again (after chewing and swallowing her first piece). She was on a roll. I added some bits of cottage cheese and started videotaping the occasion. Success!

Yesterday I had to make a dash to the grocery store for some finger foods, so next we'll move on to pieces of banana, mango, soft cooked veggies, etc....

I'm also seething about a customer service situation we're currently involved in with a baby store. It's somewhere we had never shopped before and I recently made a large online purchase from them. I'm reserving the story for when the situation has been resolved, but I promise it will be a full blown (and hopefully humorous) rant of a "please, please, as my friend or family member, do not EVER shop here" nature...

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

some new year firsts

Phew - I've spent the past week recovering from the holidays and getting back into a routine, and consequently not much time online. Our first New Year's Eve with Sara was really nice. We joined our friends in the late afternoon, and after the girls played we enjoyed a yummy full-fat appetizer dinner.
Sara went to sleep perfectly in her playpen, which was awesome, allowing me to enjoy some wine in the hot tub with the ladies while the guys played a hockey video game until the ball dropped. In fact, Sara was TOO quiet, prompting a drunken daddy to sneak into the room and make sure all was well at 2:30am - I was sure he'd wake her, but once he put the idea in my head, I couldn't go to sleep until he checked!

Sara has already crossed one resolution off of her list... she has started saying 'da da', and it's so cute. Her daddy is very happy about this new development, especially after a few weeks of nothing but 'ma ma'! I have a hunch that she actually knows what she's saying, because yesterday she kept repeating 'ma ma, da da'. She also started clapping her hands, which I love. This is an exciting development that we were working on for a couple of months.

She's still going backwards with her crawling, but she can really move now - especially when she gets to our hardwood floor! She doesn't seem too bothered about not going forwards yet, because when she wants a particular toy she just pivots around until she can reach it. I have learned to just relax, knowing from experience that Sara's temperament is very cautious with new things (much like her mommy), and she does things only when she's ready. And once she has mastered a new skill, she can't get enough of it!
Over the past week I've been trying to encourage her self-feeding skills. I've introduced some finger foods on her highchair tray (baby cookie, broken up toast, steamed pears.) She mostly just pushes it around, which I find funny considering she puts everything else into her mouth! Her grasp is really good - she picks up the pieces and examines them, and then usually just throws them over the side. She eats pieces off of my finger though, and I'm relieved that so far her chewing skills are great. Yesterday we made a bit of a breakthrough with her cup. She finally drank some water - eagerly! I've taken the no-spill valve out for now until she gets the hang of it, which makes for very wet and messy drinking lessons. It's a mix of me holding the cup for her, and then her holding it. She loves to shake the cup and down, and once when it splashed her in the eyes once, she got angry and pushed the cup away with all her strength. Lesson over. Hee.

This morning we went back to the pool to start the winter session of our diaper fit class. It's much smaller this time, only 5 of us. One of my main winter projects is Operation Flat Belly - my post-pregnancy belly, which was almost gone, has grown back as a post-Christmas belly. So, it was good to get moving in the water. Sara is the oldest baby this time, and for the first time, I was the mom being asked various developmental questions or for tips about getting a baby to like the water. I'm so used to being the one with questions, so I'm happy to help though it made me a bit wistful -- likely also because I was reminded that many of the moms from the last class are heading back to work already. Sara still loves the pool so I'm going to start taking her during free swim times more often. As usual, she was the lifeguard magnet! They gravitated right to her, playing little games and waving/clapping with her. I was so proud of my little girl!