Ok, ok. Sorry Little Miss. Sorry. It's been a crazy busy couple of months! So we have to do a two-in-one birthday post this time. But that just means double the fun, right? Right.
Eight Months
First and foremost, She got teeth!
Teeth for eating every solid food possible! The solid-er the better! Teeth for flashing at every human being that dares to glance Her way in the perpetual Little Miss Grin! Teeth for biting sisters/teddy bears/mommies with when we get frustrated! Oh yes. We will be hoping to nip this in the bud, so to speak.
But Miss learned more fun things besides the various uses of chompers.
Like how to wave "bye-bye"
How to sign for "more"
And my personal favorite, how to say "Mama"!
She Mama's me a lot these days. Especially when tired or displeased (mamamammamamamama!) but very often just when we play or cuddle. It melts my heart, no matter what brought it on.
She started to become much more an interactive member of the family this month. She perfected the military commando-crawl. And it's hard to remember what else, since so much happened at nine months...
Nine Months
A landmark birthday! She has officially been out in the world longer than She was in my tummy.
She brought J into the loop, learning to say "Dada". Although Little One has been working very hard to get Her to say "Sissy" also, so far Little One is simply referred to by Miss as a general grunting sound, or sometimes also "Mama".
But that's not all Miss has been saying to us! She babbles on and on, squeals and gasps, and generally loves to regale us all with the amazing adventures She has. We smile and nod. But more exciting (to us) is the use of actual English! Sort of a big event, isn't it, so it gets its own post soon.
She also knows only to well how to hold Her arms up and "Uh! Uh! Uh!" to be held. For a baby who loves to explore and move as much as Miss does, it's an odd paradox that She wants even more to be held ALL THE TIME. She doesn't make a fuss over it always, but if given the choice She'd far prefer to be riding around on someone's hip. She's not super snuggly though. Anymore, it's only every now and then that She will hold still for two seconds to really lay down on a shoulder or consent to be held tight. So although I do think She likes the closeness of being carried, I'm suspicious that maybe we have a chihuahua thing going on here. That maybe She likes to be carted about because it gets Her up off the floor in accordance with Her preferred stature.
Wanting to be conveyed to and fro on a gilded litter is not the only sign we have seen of a little diva lurking under that sweet mellow demeanor. Oh no! Miss is the easiest most sweet tempered baby there is. Unless you cross Her. Take a wad of paper from Her hand? Remove Her from the Hazardous Whatever? Attempt to, heaven FORBID, changer Her clothes or diaper?! Tell Her "no"? Fail in your secretary-to-the-queen scheduling duties and cause Her to miss a nap!?!?!? Oh no.
These outrages will not be permitted. Miss goes from cooing, smiling at you, batting those angelic eyelids, to "OFF WITH YOUR HEAD YOU FIENDISH PEON!" in about 0.082 of a second. The girl will tell you off with words that I may not understand but I would never repeat in fine society. And if you really tick Her off? Watch. Out. The child has teeth now, and She is NOT afraid to use them.
At the moment, it's all really quite funny. I can't help but envision Her as a tiny Queen of Hearts when She does this. And as a person with a bit of a Streak myself, I was starting to worry that She was going to be almost too mild-mannered. Not a problem. We will have to work on taking frustrations in stride, and certainly on keeping our fangs to ourselves, but on the whole She is still sweet and happy 99% of the time, and is so very easily re-directed and quick to forgive that Her little rages aren't much bother for now.
At least Little Miss knows what She wants. One thing She wants very much, as I've mentioned, is to be on a perfect, by-the-book sleeping schedule. On an ideal day, Little Miss is up like an set alarm clock at 6:30am, in Her own soft bed to nap at 9am sharp, back for another siesta at 1:30pm, and bathed, fed, read to, tucked in and snoozing by 8pm. Or else.
She also wants whatever you're having. Whatever anyone is having. Miss has got the dogs beat for giving a "please please?" puppy-dog face to anyone with food. I am as staunch about what I'll allow Her to eat as a baby as I was with Little One, so the majority of the time She is denied. But when it's Her turn to eat? ANYthing? Woo hoo!!! I haven't found anything yet that She won't eat. Including lemons and raw onion. Her favorites, in the weird style of the rest of Her family, are: kale, tofu, rice cereal, and lettuce. Yes, lettuce. A leaf to hold and gum for 8 minutes until it's soft enough to swallow. LOVES it! Generally speaking She does prefer table food to blended baby food, I think just because She's more likely to be allowed to feed Herself. An extremely messy but apparently very fulfilling endeavor.
All this good eating and sleeping is working out. She is still growing all directions, sharing shorts, skirts, dresses, leggings, jackets, and most shirts with Little One. She's still on the small side of "normal" size for Her age, but only just. Overall She is a healthy, strong little thing and I LOVE it. In fact, She is so strong that She is now able to get out of that eternal commando-crawl and see the world from the great aerial height of about 24 inches.
That's right, She's gone vertical! She pulled to a stand on the wooden play cube and J called, "C! Come look come look!" There She was, teetering precariously and grinning ear to ear, just oozing with pride. So what did I do? Went for the camera, of course. And while I adjusted the setting, Miss wondered where my attention went. 'Hello?! Major accomplishment here mom! Check it out! Hellooo mom?!' She raised a hand to wave to me. As She did so, of course, She lost Her balance, crashed over backwards, and cut Her head on the corner of the hearth. As I, using all my innate mothering instincts, snapped a photo. She survived. She even decided to try that dangerous move again, and now pulls up on any and everything She can get Her chubby hands on.
Because Miss wants so very much to walk, and to RUN. The better to catch Her sister. Still Her best friend and most beloved person, Little Miss wants nothing more than to have Little One just even look at Her. Fortunately Little One is appropriately honored by the adulation and humors Miss most of the time.
Little Miss still loves to bestow avalanches of affection on anyone She meets, in fact, and creates quite the following wherever we go. She loves to entertain with waves and babbles, grins and blown kisses, and Her new-found talent; using Her clasped hands to cover/uncover Her mouth to make an awesome Tarzan call; "ah-ah-ah-ah-aah!" We all think it's quite entertaining.
She adores patty-cake and little piggy, She loves splashing in the bath and She loves dolls. She despises socks and hats and isn't huge on clothing in general. She loves the touch-and-feel books, especially the "that's not my puppy" line, which never gets old and is the only series of books She will sit still for. All other books are only interesting for a page or two, or if chewed on. She loves to climb all over you and to be tickled, but is terrified of being lifted high in the air, bounced around, or being tortured with a slide or swing. She dislikes sudden, loud noises, unless She is making them. Then they are hilarious.
Little Miss is a sunny, funny baby on the cusp of becoming an opinionated, rather independent little person. Her personality seems to be shaping and forming and taking on new dimensions by the day, and it is SO much fun to be around to watch it happening.
One of the reasons I don't get around to posting as much as I used to is just that Miss keeps me so very busy and is up to (and into) so very much these days that I'm afraid if I stop to write something down, I'll miss the next new thing. It's not that you're neglected, my Miss. It's that I have so much fun with you and your sis, that I can hardly pull myself away long enough to record it! Between late birthday posts though, it's safe to say we're having a LOT of fun, growing and laughing, and making a gigantic, glorious mess.
Eight MonthsFirst and foremost, She got teeth!
Teeth for eating every solid food possible! The solid-er the better! Teeth for flashing at every human being that dares to glance Her way in the perpetual Little Miss Grin! Teeth for biting sisters/teddy bears/mommies with when we get frustrated! Oh yes. We will be hoping to nip this in the bud, so to speak.
But Miss learned more fun things besides the various uses of chompers.
Like how to wave "bye-bye"
How to sign for "more"
And my personal favorite, how to say "Mama"!
She Mama's me a lot these days. Especially when tired or displeased (mamamammamamamama!) but very often just when we play or cuddle. It melts my heart, no matter what brought it on.
She started to become much more an interactive member of the family this month. She perfected the military commando-crawl. And it's hard to remember what else, since so much happened at nine months...
Nine MonthsA landmark birthday! She has officially been out in the world longer than She was in my tummy.
She brought J into the loop, learning to say "Dada". Although Little One has been working very hard to get Her to say "Sissy" also, so far Little One is simply referred to by Miss as a general grunting sound, or sometimes also "Mama".
But that's not all Miss has been saying to us! She babbles on and on, squeals and gasps, and generally loves to regale us all with the amazing adventures She has. We smile and nod. But more exciting (to us) is the use of actual English! Sort of a big event, isn't it, so it gets its own post soon.
She also knows only to well how to hold Her arms up and "Uh! Uh! Uh!" to be held. For a baby who loves to explore and move as much as Miss does, it's an odd paradox that She wants even more to be held ALL THE TIME. She doesn't make a fuss over it always, but if given the choice She'd far prefer to be riding around on someone's hip. She's not super snuggly though. Anymore, it's only every now and then that She will hold still for two seconds to really lay down on a shoulder or consent to be held tight. So although I do think She likes the closeness of being carried, I'm suspicious that maybe we have a chihuahua thing going on here. That maybe She likes to be carted about because it gets Her up off the floor in accordance with Her preferred stature.
Wanting to be conveyed to and fro on a gilded litter is not the only sign we have seen of a little diva lurking under that sweet mellow demeanor. Oh no! Miss is the easiest most sweet tempered baby there is. Unless you cross Her. Take a wad of paper from Her hand? Remove Her from the Hazardous Whatever? Attempt to, heaven FORBID, changer Her clothes or diaper?! Tell Her "no"? Fail in your secretary-to-the-queen scheduling duties and cause Her to miss a nap!?!?!? Oh no.
These outrages will not be permitted. Miss goes from cooing, smiling at you, batting those angelic eyelids, to "OFF WITH YOUR HEAD YOU FIENDISH PEON!" in about 0.082 of a second. The girl will tell you off with words that I may not understand but I would never repeat in fine society. And if you really tick Her off? Watch. Out. The child has teeth now, and She is NOT afraid to use them.
At the moment, it's all really quite funny. I can't help but envision Her as a tiny Queen of Hearts when She does this. And as a person with a bit of a Streak myself, I was starting to worry that She was going to be almost too mild-mannered. Not a problem. We will have to work on taking frustrations in stride, and certainly on keeping our fangs to ourselves, but on the whole She is still sweet and happy 99% of the time, and is so very easily re-directed and quick to forgive that Her little rages aren't much bother for now.
At least Little Miss knows what She wants. One thing She wants very much, as I've mentioned, is to be on a perfect, by-the-book sleeping schedule. On an ideal day, Little Miss is up like an set alarm clock at 6:30am, in Her own soft bed to nap at 9am sharp, back for another siesta at 1:30pm, and bathed, fed, read to, tucked in and snoozing by 8pm. Or else.
She also wants whatever you're having. Whatever anyone is having. Miss has got the dogs beat for giving a "please please?" puppy-dog face to anyone with food. I am as staunch about what I'll allow Her to eat as a baby as I was with Little One, so the majority of the time She is denied. But when it's Her turn to eat? ANYthing? Woo hoo!!! I haven't found anything yet that She won't eat. Including lemons and raw onion. Her favorites, in the weird style of the rest of Her family, are: kale, tofu, rice cereal, and lettuce. Yes, lettuce. A leaf to hold and gum for 8 minutes until it's soft enough to swallow. LOVES it! Generally speaking She does prefer table food to blended baby food, I think just because She's more likely to be allowed to feed Herself. An extremely messy but apparently very fulfilling endeavor.
All this good eating and sleeping is working out. She is still growing all directions, sharing shorts, skirts, dresses, leggings, jackets, and most shirts with Little One. She's still on the small side of "normal" size for Her age, but only just. Overall She is a healthy, strong little thing and I LOVE it. In fact, She is so strong that She is now able to get out of that eternal commando-crawl and see the world from the great aerial height of about 24 inches.
That's right, She's gone vertical! She pulled to a stand on the wooden play cube and J called, "C! Come look come look!" There She was, teetering precariously and grinning ear to ear, just oozing with pride. So what did I do? Went for the camera, of course. And while I adjusted the setting, Miss wondered where my attention went. 'Hello?! Major accomplishment here mom! Check it out! Hellooo mom?!' She raised a hand to wave to me. As She did so, of course, She lost Her balance, crashed over backwards, and cut Her head on the corner of the hearth. As I, using all my innate mothering instincts, snapped a photo. She survived. She even decided to try that dangerous move again, and now pulls up on any and everything She can get Her chubby hands on.
Because Miss wants so very much to walk, and to RUN. The better to catch Her sister. Still Her best friend and most beloved person, Little Miss wants nothing more than to have Little One just even look at Her. Fortunately Little One is appropriately honored by the adulation and humors Miss most of the time.
Little Miss still loves to bestow avalanches of affection on anyone She meets, in fact, and creates quite the following wherever we go. She loves to entertain with waves and babbles, grins and blown kisses, and Her new-found talent; using Her clasped hands to cover/uncover Her mouth to make an awesome Tarzan call; "ah-ah-ah-ah-aah!" We all think it's quite entertaining.
She adores patty-cake and little piggy, She loves splashing in the bath and She loves dolls. She despises socks and hats and isn't huge on clothing in general. She loves the touch-and-feel books, especially the "that's not my puppy" line, which never gets old and is the only series of books She will sit still for. All other books are only interesting for a page or two, or if chewed on. She loves to climb all over you and to be tickled, but is terrified of being lifted high in the air, bounced around, or being tortured with a slide or swing. She dislikes sudden, loud noises, unless She is making them. Then they are hilarious.
Little Miss is a sunny, funny baby on the cusp of becoming an opinionated, rather independent little person. Her personality seems to be shaping and forming and taking on new dimensions by the day, and it is SO much fun to be around to watch it happening.
One of the reasons I don't get around to posting as much as I used to is just that Miss keeps me so very busy and is up to (and into) so very much these days that I'm afraid if I stop to write something down, I'll miss the next new thing. It's not that you're neglected, my Miss. It's that I have so much fun with you and your sis, that I can hardly pull myself away long enough to record it! Between late birthday posts though, it's safe to say we're having a LOT of fun, growing and laughing, and making a gigantic, glorious mess.
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