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!