-She's sitting up great now! I LOVE putting her on the ground with toys in front of her and seeing her "play". She is constantly moving her hands and feet now, and we love to see those feet going in circles at the ankle-especially when she is in her high chair or bumbo. So cute. When she gets toys in her hands she examines them by staring them down and rotating her wrist around and around, then back and forth to see what it does. She is also quite vocal now, and when she is playing she is generally babbling and squealing, too. When we sing Henry's prayer song before a meal we think she tries to join in with her little voice, too! She is definitely a second child in that she is used to having someone around all the time. I think she can tell pretty quickly when she is alone and doesn't like it much. She starts to fuss and look around.
-She is actually so vocal that she is saying "bubba" and "mama" now when she babbles...I think I will consider these here first words! Henry was so proud when she started saying "bubba" and even now he will alert me every time she says her 2 new words. She says "bubba" a lot when she is playing or riding in her car seat. She says "mama" for sure when she is sad or crying. It's sweet to her her little voice!
-She's eating baby food more solidly now. She began at 6 months, then regressed and did the whole clench mouth thing, but now she's back at it thanks to Uncle Jimmy's work over our Christmas visit with them. He's just so patient with babies! She generally eats 2-3 jars a day (a fruit with oatmeal or rice for breakfast, a veggie and fruit for lunch and the rest of it for dinner). I still nurse her like normal and just add in the baby food after the breakfast, lunch, dinner nursings. She will lean in for the spoon and kind of suck it off-things her brother NEVER did. She has yet to make any crazy faces or shudder in disgust like he did, either. If there's one she doesn't love, she will just kind of quit accepting it, and I get the picture.:) She hasn't had any "dinner" types yet, but I will be trying those soon. She's had oatmeal and rice cereals, as well as all the fruit, veggie, or fruit and veggie combos that the stores offer. I don't intend to make baby food myself this time, sorry Annie. I think you might actually thank me for it!:)
-Some of her greatest joys right now are hoodie strings, necklaces, the straps on her high chair, shoes that come off and end up in her hands/mouth, and anything crunchy like a plastic bag or paper! She acts like she's hit the jackpot when she gets any of these above items!
-She is quite tolerant of Henry. She lights up around him and loves to watch him play and run around. Her eyes follow him everywhere. He is quite hands on with her and she usually tolerates it pretty well. We are constantly reminding him to back off and give her space. He loves to hug her head when she is sitting on the ground...I feel so bad for her when he does this, but he means well!
-She's into a nice sleep routine now, although we still have some nights that do not go routinely. I have finally decided that she is a very average sleeper, and I shouldn't be disappointed by this just because Henry was and still is an exceptional sleeper! (for example...he just took a 2.5 hr afternoon nap, but she was awake at about 1 hr and 45mins). In general, she sleeps through the night now (7:30-5:00). She falls back to sleep, but only til about 6:30 or so. She's ready for a morning nap around 9-9:30 (right around 1.5 to 2 hrs) then is ready in the afternoon around 1:30 for 1.5 to 2 hrs again. She can fight against sleep like her brother never did, too. She has certain tactics like turning her neck all the way around so that she is basically looking over my arm at whatever is behind us. She also can push her paci to the side and start gnawing on it rather than sucking it (because that makes her sleepy). She can arch her back and fuss and fight with the best of them. I am learning, though, that sometimes just laying her down in her crib after rocking her for just a minute is the best. She can't fight me that way and generally goes to sleep on her own. There are other times, though, where it just takes a minute of rocking and snuggling cheek to cheek for her to fall asleep. She certainly has cuddly times and is very loving, too.
-She has had TWO ear infections this month:( I am hoping she does not follow Henry in this area, but so far we are not off to a great start. She basically got them back to back-her left ear followed by her right. She had all the symptoms I'm used to, except one biggie-no high fever! With the first one she had a very slight fever, but none at all with the second one. This makes things quite confusing for me, and if she continues to have them in the future I think I can expect even MORE of a guessing game than when fever is involved. Oh, the other thing was that with the second one she was up ALL night long with it...Henry slept through them for the most part. I didn't know she was sick and just tried to let her cry/did all the things I normally do when she doesn't sleep well, but as soon as she got up in the morning and I looked at her I could tell she was sick.I felt terrible-poor baby! We had to go to the cousins' pediatrician in Lexington who was luckily seeing patients on the Saturday before Christmas. What a great doctor!
-A few random things: She cracks up when we blow her hair right above her forehead, she is constantly doing something with her tongue or sucking on her bottom lip, she opens up her mouth wide when she's happy, when she's on her back she will rotate all around the floor, but she never flips over, she is super ticklish and we love taking advantage of it. She got an elephant ball popper toy for Christmas and loves it. She can sit right in front of it and push the button herself to make it start. She does it over and over and loves to hold the ball and put it in her mouth, too.We are getting lots of "she's starting to look a lot like Henry now" comments. I think her filling out attributes to a lot of this. We are both seeing similarities, too, but she certainly still has her own look. They aren't carbon copies.
 |
| Great view of those 2 teeth getting bigger! |
You are such a sweet baby, little Annie, and we love watching you play and grow. We can't wait to see what fun next
No comments:
Post a Comment