tawbubby

Daphne had a check up Friday. She’s 14.5 pounds, 2 feet tall, and doing fine. She got some shots and the OK to start solid food. She sucked on a slice of pear this week and I think liked it.

Saturday morning she woke up about 6 and was clearly interested in being awake, talking and smiling, rather than going back to sleep. So we got up and enjoyed each other. I gave her some barley cereal and she did really well!

Here is a “baby bird” picture:

She didn’t push any of it back out of her mouth. There was dribbling but I think that is just figuring out how to swallow the stuff. I mixed up a little cereal and milk, and she ate it all. Then Amelia woke up and had her cereal, and wanted Daphne to eat with her. I mixed up another batch, and she ate all of that. Those cheeks are only going to get bigger!

I have heard her giggle twice- short little giggles. She made “L” sounds last night, maybe because her daddy sings “La la la la la” to her over and over again. And is just in general delightful. She added a “B” sound this morning.

We try to ask her about her day at dinner- generally based on the comments her teacher writes each day on a sheet for us.
Usually every yes/no question is answered with “Yes”, so it’s not reliable or informative. If we ask an open ended question, once in a while we get a story. The preview of last night’s story is that we had heavy flurries yesterday.

Allison: Amelia, did you see the snow today?

Amelia: Yes. And I got my socks wet because I walked in it and I took my shoes off and Miss Lauren gave me new socks.

We looked, and indeed she wasn’t wearing the same socks she left the house with in the morning.

Allison: Why did you have your shoes off?

Amelia: Because I wanted bare feet.

Allison: Did you walk in your socks in snow outside or inside?

Amelia: I walked out on the inside and I walked around and my socks got wet.

We were a little dubious, and figured she just stepped in some water on the floor or something.
I asked her teacher about it today, and yes, she was in her socks outside in the snow! She took her shoes off after she woke up from her nap. They noticed the snow and scurried the kids outside to see it, but didn’t notice her socks.

Something new-ish for her is the use of events-in-sequence in her stories, usually connected by the phrase “and then….and then…”. She also uses “yesterday” and “tomorrow” type words randomly (incorrectly, but when it would be appropriate to use a time reference).

First off, cute Daphne in a little bathrobe.

All four of us went out to dinner tonight at Friendly’s. No one cried at our table, and no one from another table wished they were sitting somewhere else. So it was a success! Amelia tried to drink her lemonade with a sugar-packet-straw.

She also got her finger stuck in the straw hole and it hurt her a little to pull it back out against the four pokey pieces of plastic.

Little Daphne just sat quietly in her car seat, looking around. Towards the end she had some fun with her giggly bug toy.

We miss our favorite diner in Rockville…need to find something like that here.

Daphne is making some great sounds for the past two weeks (see first picture for the action shot). This week they became more Chewbacca-like. Sort of in the back of her throat and sometimes her sounds make her cough or gag! Sometimes they are REALLY loud too.

The other cool thing is that Daphne notices Amelia now. She turned so fast to Amelia’s voice one day this week, almost 180 degrees. Amelia has also noticed that Daphne is looking at her- which makes her interact more with Daphne. She made her tea last week, shares play food with her, and tells her sweet things. I guess Amelia did those things before, but now Daphne watches for a little while and sometimes reacts. Amelia even got a couple smiles, though she is rarely around long enough to catch them.

Happy Amelia seems to be back. We’ve been through probably half a dozen phases of different attention-getting tricks recently. Tantrums (maybe 3 in November), whining, testing us, crying (Daphne cries and gets attention…), screeching (happy, looking-for-a-reaction screeching) and finally— being silly. I love this one! She does something or says something that makes us laugh all the time. Now she has started doing that funny thing several times to make us laugh more. It’s much better than crying. I can’t even remember what she said at dinner last night that made us all laugh. She tried it a couple more times. I hope this phase lasts until college!

She exclaimed “I want to help!” several times this week when I was dusting, giving the dogs water, vacuuming, etc. Today she carried a small piece of firewood from the side of our house to Fafa’s car, and carried another piece inside to the fireplace. Later, she dragged each grocery bag (6) from the front door to the kitchen, and was soooooo proud of herself. I hope that sticks around too!

I decided that Amelia is growing up. Her crib “converts” (ha!) to a toddler bed by taking a side and the wheels off. We got her a side rail, being assembled here by Ethan, so she only has about 8 inches open. She also has a new pillow with some butterflies on it, so she can learn to keep her head at one end.

She definitely feels special and excited. She kept telling us “I’m a big girl!” She even told Daphne that a couple times, almost screeching it right in her face.
Is she ready for this? Are we ready for this? I told her if she gets up in the night after Monday that the side goes back on the crib. We’ll see…hopefully our great sleeper will stay that way.

The assembly directions for the rail are funny: “PLEASE: Take a big breath - and rest assured that these instructions are very easy to follow, and will help you assemble this rail VERY quickly, and without tools!” Ethan was wishing for a couple pictures.

10:37 pm update: so far so good. She went right to bed at 7:47. We just peeked and her head is on the pillow! Now we’re guessing naptime tomorrow will be fun.

Tuesday AM update: She hasn’t gotten out of bed once. Including the hour she spent talking and not napping on Sunday. She climbs in and out when we’re hanging out in her room, but waits for us to get her out when she wakes up from sleeping.

Saturday update: She hasn’t gotten out yet…she’s awesome!

Geegee and Giffer visited this weekend to celebrate Christmas with us. Here is Geegee with Daphne:

And Giffer with Amelia in her schmancy new pajamas!

A rare picture of the four of us.

Yes, Amelia is wearing her underwear on the outside of her jeans.

Daphne just rolled 3 times from front to back! She started really turning her head to look at things, and her body just followed.
She could already do it when she was propped up on a pillow but this was flat on the floor.