Mo' Ba' do'

Developmental milestones, here we come. She can stand up and sit back down, while holding heavy things (such as the potty) completely unassisted. She's popping up and down like a Jack-in-the-box, even when she's suppose to be sleeping. She's still not furniture cruising all that much, although the last couple days she has shown great delight in hanging on to fingers and going for a walk. Her little feet go march, march, and off she goes.

She has also figured out how to crawl into her bouncy chair. She'll stand in front of it and play with the buckles, then crawl into it and turn around. She's also tried standing up and bouncing up and down, but the poor chair wasn't really meant for that (the seat sags nearly to the ground). She's approached the stair in the basement and tried going up it once (with bad results) and seems interested now, but a bit cautious.

We have taken to putting the gate up over the basement stairs when she's wandering around downstairs because she's very fast, and the parents get distracted while working. She'll follow me around now, which is very cute except for when I'm going out the back door or into the laundry room. She follows me, then stands up and leans on the door and cries for me, but I can't get back through the door because she's leaning on it... We have to get a new screen door for the back because the netting is partially torn out and it doesn't latch, so it would be very easy for her to end up on the back stairs...

She's been working on the fine dexterity thing as well. She has spent lots of time putting the tooth brush into the bottle (it just fits) and taking it back out again. The bubble wand into the empty bubble bath bottle. All toys (and her head) into the potty. The toothbrush into the empty toilet paper tube. The washcloth into the cup. Hands into glasses, especially if they have water in them. She's also finally interested in the peek a boo book.

And, of course, food and everything else into mom and dad's mouth. For some reason she finds that really funny. Here she is feeding dad a pea.

Morning breakfast now includes yogurt, especially fine as a hair gel. She also prefers her cereal soaked in milk. I'm not exactly sure how it ends up on the back of her neck.

She's starting to say words, although I'm not really sure that they apply to specific things yet. She picked up "ball" from Luke at daycare, and she's been saying "more" and occasionally "done" as well. And some mimicking - she did a passable imitation of "buckle". She was apparently doing call and response with Luke at daycare while Annie was trying to get Luke to go to sleep.

She has enough hair now that bits of it stick up and out (particularly when mom didn't do a good job of washing the yogurt out). Still a bit thin on the forehead. It's still pretty blonde, but not white-blonde.

She spent most of yesterday at work while I met with my students. She was very well-behaved, especially considering that she didn't sleep from 11 to 5. But she did pass out instantly in the bicycle trailer on the way home. I've had to baby proof most of the kitchen area in the lab, but she kept herself entertained with my helmet, the chairs, my keys, the soccer ball... The mirror in the bathroom was great fun, because she can stand in front of it and kiss (bite?) her reflection.

Nighttimes have been going better - she managed several nights with only one, or no, wakings. Although it can be very difficult to get her back to sleep after her 6am nursing. I've resorted to taking her back to her chair in the basement a couple times.

Bill built the crib in the basement but it's been a failure, more or less - both of us are too tired to try to make it work. We tried for an hour and a half one night. She'd fall asleep, we'd put her in the crib, pat her for a while, and then she'd roll over, sit up, and cry. Sigh.

They are out of g-diapers, at Whole foods, Wild oats, *and* the website. We've been having lots of poopy accidents at day care, so we've been going through the covers at a rather rapid rate. We got a set of disposables (environmentally correct ones) just in case.

EC'ing has been a tiny bit better the last couple days - at least she's peeing in the potty and not next to it, sometimes. But lots of poopy diapers. Or, like yesterday, she started pooping on the floor and we rushed her to the potty. Poor thing actually had a touch of diaper rash for the first time.

She seems to have picked up a cold from somewhere - she was coughing all last night and sniffly this morning. Still happy as a clam, though, wandering around, over, under. But we had a rough morning of it because she projectile vomited at least three times, over me, herself, the floor, the bed, the rug... and she didn't sleep well last night.

Nursing seems to be less interesting than solid food these days. I've been turned down for real food a couple times. She wasn't all that interested in nursing on Tuesday, but Thursday she was. So maybe I can move to once a day soon... Tuesday she fell asleep again and didn't wake up until 11. When Bill took her in I went down to nurse, which she did for a little, then demanded to be put down. So I put her down, and we finger-walked over to Annie. Isabella got a hug, then decided she wanted to nurse more... so I guess greetings come before nursings... She's been nursing a lot quicker and not as aggressively at day care, and wants to be down and around as soon as possible.

We are trying to get down south to do a bit of camping and relax this weekend, but so far we've not had a good start to the day... it being 11 and Bill's still asleep, and Isabella's getting close to needing another nap.