Growing up. The milestones:
Our major breakthrough since last month has been sleeping through the night! Hurrah! Not long after her 9month entry I was able to put her down at 7:30-8pm and she’d sleep right through until at least 4:30am, if not later, and then go back to sleep until 6:30-7am. Woo Hoo! This week she’s had a cold so she has been waking a couple times in the night cranky because she can’t breathe through her nose 😦 Last night however, she went down a little after 8pm and slept right through until just past 7:30am! I woke up and realized she hadn’t woken during the night and actually got a little worried just before she woke up for breakfast.
I think she’s teething big time this week. She is kind of drool-y, chews on everything and her lower gum line is looking kind of white and bumpy. I’m looking forward to seeing some teeth in her smile but at the same time it will be sad because it’s a sign of her growing up, sigh.
She’s mostly wearing 9month clothes now and her stock of bigger clothing is whittling down so I have started to look at the next age range at thrift stores and online. I am starting to compile a birthday wish list on Amazon for the family. It’s basically the baby registry updated for current things, but I couldn’t find a way to make another public wish list for her.
Still no real talking yet, but she’s babbling in a very chatty manner 🙂 Lots of mamamama and other noises to communicate sentences, but no real word sounds.
We are now bathing her in the big tub. She still sits in her little tub but can now splash away without soaking the livingroom 🙂 The little tub is getting to be a tight fit though so we will have to move up to a proper baby bath tub very soon.
Playing and learning:
Our new game is “I’m coming to get you!” She’ll be walking somewhere and I’ll get down to her level and tell her I’m coming to get her and she’ll start walking away fast, stop and look back at me to make sure I’m following and giggle 🙂 The other evening I switched it up and when she started walking toward me I turned away and cried “ahh, she’s coming to get me!” and started to hurry away from her, she was giggling so hard, it was fantastic ❤
She’s really into her books (well, anyone’s books really) and will pull them off the shelf and sit with them all around her picking them out one by one and studying them intently. Books that she routinely goes back to are: “Sleepyhead” by Nicola Smee,her Peter Rabbit Finger Puppet Book, ”Where’s Spot?” and “Good night, Spot” by Eric Hill, “You…” by Emma Dodd, “Dear Zoo” by Rod Campbell and “Llama Llama Zippity Zoom” & “Llama Llama Hoppity Hop” by Anna Dewdney. These are books that I am learning by heart 😛 Oh she loves her touch and feel books and one of her baby sign books too! She looks through all of them, but these are the ones she seriously studies and searches for multiple times a day.
Most of her toys are cuddly toys or rattles rather than anything like puzzles or blocks. She loves her phone that her UK cousins handed down and last week I found a little toy at a thrift store (for $2!) that she is enjoying. It has buttons and a mirror and lights and plays music (about 12 different songs!). I’m working on increasing her ‘stimulating’ or ‘educational’ toys (maybe then she won’t pull all my books off the shelf :P).
She loves music. Listening to and dancing to and making. She will dance to music on the TV or radio and I pulled out my big case of CDs and am working through them slowly, which is a nice trip down memory lane for me 🙂 She loves to bang on things to hear the different sounds they make (the washing machine, the table, the door etc) and enjoys clapping together 2 bottle caps to make a ‘clip clop’ noise. She is going to *love* her music class next month!
The other night I was trying to get her ready for bed so I turned off the TV and my laptop and she just toddled around quietly for a bit then she came over to me holding one of her dragons. I asked if she wanted to take Dee Dee to bed with her, picked her up and moved her into her crib to play quietly. It was very sweet and I think I’d like to try suggesting she pick out a toy to take to bed again. The last few nights she’s been studying her books right before bed so I’ve put her in her crib with 1 or 2 books and then removed them when she’s asleep.
It’s funny seeing how she interacts with her cousin. Even though she’s 3years old she acts kind of scared of her (“She touched me!” “She’s going to eat my things!”) but Maeve is just curious and interested in her big cousin. Her cousin is always taking something away from Maeve and swapping it for a baby toy, but we’ll work on the whole sharing issue so hopefully this will be a short lived trend.
We’ve been to the park a few more times and she loves the swing and climbing the stairs to the slide (we have yet to go down the slide except for the one time at Easter). I’m getting a little more comfortable chatting with the other mums and child minders at the park and I’ve created a group on Facebook to chat with other mum friends about the little daily moments so I don’t feel quite so stranded and lonely. I think it definitely helps that spring is in full swing and the nicer weather is allowing us to get out more often.
She loves animals! She gets very happy and giggly around dogs of all kinds, seemed very interested in Molly and Thumb at my friends house the other week and she watches squirrels and birds when we’re out for walks. When we’re down on the south side she’ll toddle after the dogs and laughs when their tail brushes her face. Thankfully they are well trained by years of ‘abuse’ from the cousin and are very gentle with her 🙂
Writing all of this down, and seeing how much I’ve written “she loves…” etc, it makes me so happy to realize how many things she gets enjoyment from 🙂 I look forward to her developing these loves and adding to them over the years. I am excited for Chicago Summer Dance and music festivals and trips to the library/ book store and the zoo etc etc etc ❤
Chasing The Stormbringer 