Da Poop Monster

She pooped 4 times today, which is really hard to believe. But the poor thing has been unhappy all evening with a bit of a sniffly nose and a low fever, so maybe she's sick. Although it could be teething as well - she's been drooling and waking up with a cough in the middle of the night.

Bill was out of town the last couple days, which means I'm a bit short on sleep since, as usual, she was, if not waking herself up, at least waking me up every hour and a half or so. Just one major fuss at midnight, which requires a rock to sleep, and nursing at 4/5, but she cries out every hour and a half or so. Seems to go back to sleep on her own, mostly, though.

She is standing unassisted for longer and longer periods of time. Seems quite pleased about it, especially when she can take what she's holding and put it in your mouth. This is her favorite game for the last couple days. Wash clothes, food, spoons, toys, fingers - seems to find the entire thing really funny. Fingers that get et are particularly amusing.

She was fascinated last evening with the puppet and the clear green cup - she'd put the puppet in the cup, then look at it through the side of the cup. Mom looks really amusing when she's green, too, apparently.

Since Bill was in LA I had to pick up the baby and drop her off. I was meeting with my students and, of course, the only time they could meet was 5:30... so Isabella joined the meeting. She was actually very well behaved, given that she was a bit hungry and tired.

The worst part about taking care of her by myself is showers. I piled up all of her favorite toys, gave her the drawer to play with.... and she sat outside of the shower door and cried the entire time I was in there. It was a bit difficult to get out because she was leaning on the door, and I didn't want to knock her over. Took her awhile to get over it, too. Sigh. This is the same child who, when I take her to day care, promptly goes to play with all her toys and ignores me.

I think she's starting to understand the word "munchies". She grins and laughs and gets very excited. She has discovered that shirts lift up, and that she can latch on from any number of positions. None of which seem terribly comfortable. She's taken to doing yoga while latched on - turns herself nearly upside down, around, backside up in the air balanced on one foot, downward facing dog - particularly amusing from sitting, she just sort of nose dives down. Amusing, but not very comfortable. She seems to be nursing longer in the mornings and evenings. Don't know if it's supply, or just a "want mom" thing.

She's getting faster, and is now chasing me around a bit. The laundry room door is especially enticing. We haven't had to do much more baby proofing (yet). We make do with closing the kitchen door, which at least keeps her from the shorter path to the stairs. Mostly she stays within sight, though. She's found the drawer with the bottles in them, and has great fun blowing in the bottles to make funny noises (ranks right up there with blub blub on the back of the hand).

We had a bad weekend for poop misses - three in a row. Poor Bill was about 10 seconds too late in each case. She's twice, now, climbed off the potty and squatted on the floor to pee, and once to poop. The first time was somewhat amusing because she peed on the letter P... And she often cries and protests, both about that and the big potty. However, she did go from 7pm to 3am this morning dry, so I think she's close to being dry through the night, despite half-waking up every hour and a half. Maybe when she gets big enough, and can walk, she'll be more interested in walking to the potty. One can only hope.

She seems to like the bicycle trailer, at least a bit more than the car seat. It's heavy to pull, though.

We went down to the zoo over the weekend. She was more interested in the people, I think. She chowed down on a whole thing of grapes and some really vile cherry applesauce. That's the zoo's "healthy" child's lunch option.

We had her eyes checked for cross-eyes and she came out perfectly normal.

We bought some new toys; wooden blocks, a wirey ball that's easy to catch and bounces, and a big-piece wooden puzzle. The ball's the favorite. She's started to chase it around a bit, and to play catch. Sort of.

She's washed the back of her head a couple times - grabs the wash cloth and rubs it over her head. Don't know if she's imitating me or just playing.