8 Months

{ Sunday, February 28, 2010 }
My favorite thing about the bean at 8 months old is that she now lifts up her arms and reaches for us when she wants to be picked up. We held her for quite a bit of her day before, but now I find myself carrying her with me even more often because I just can't say no when she's now able to ask to be held. I'll stand up, intending to leave her playing with her toys while I run to the next room to refill my glass, and end up bringing her on my hip because she grabs my pants and lifts her arms to me as soon as I get up. So cute and irresistable! Actually, the bean seems to be experiencing a bit of separation anxiety and isn't keen on being left alone in a room at all even for a few minutes (or alone in her crib, or sitting anywhere that she can't see someone else).

The bean has started communicating a preference for whose arms she'd like to be in. She'll sometimes almost crawl out of my arms to try to get to the boy when they haven't seen each other all day. I love to see how excited the bean gets to see her mommy and its such a joy to watch them playing together. I'm not sure I've ever seen the bean as happy as she is when she gets a good grip on the boy's glasses and is getting ready to pull them off and finally get a chance to really check them out.

The bean has mastered pulling up to standing and is beginning to cruise while just holding one mom's hand for support. I was afraid she might get up to standing and get stuck there, but she hasn't had any problem plopping herself back down to sitting--the problem is that she'll flop onto her stomach from sitting and get stuck there and cry until one of us sits her back up again. She still has no interest in crawling, but she manages to get around through a strange combination of rolling, scooting, and flopping from her hands and knees onto her belly.

We have a play area for the bean that's equipped with a floor mat with interlocking pieces. The bean has always been much more interested in taking it apart and eating the pieces than she is with playing on it, but lately she's also found a way to get herself stuck in the middle of the pieces and trying to get back out is lots of fun too!


Now, how did I end up where the circle is supposed to be?


At 8 months, the bean has also started waving "bye bye" when one of us waves to her. I've said this several times before, but I really think this age is the most fun.

Happy Birthday To Us!

{ Saturday, February 27, 2010 }

Happy birthday to my love. May we celebrate many, many more happy birthdays together!

Knitting? What's that?

{ Friday, February 26, 2010 }
I knit for the bean like mad during those agonizing days leading up to my due date and in the first few days after, but I put the needles away during the second week I was overdue. I knew that there'd be no time for knitting after she arrived and I didn't want to leave something half finished on the needles. As it turns out, that was the wrong approach. There has been no time for planning a new project--picking a pattern, swatching and experimenting with needle sizes--but there have been a few minutes here and there where I could have picked up some work in progress and knit a few stitches. Unfortunately I had nothing, not even a half finished sock, to pick up and work on. Until now.


The bean was extra sleepy during her recent illness and, since she takes her best naps in our bed, I sat with her while she slept. And knit.


I finally decided on this little sweater (Ravelry link).






Now you may be thinking that I forgot a thing or two during my hiatus since this sweater doesn't look very sweater-like, but trust me.


Here, does this help?






See? there's a little origami involved.


I'm still working on the front lace panel, but I'm so in love with making things for the bean. There's such instant gratification involved with knitting for a baby (unless we're talking about blankets, which take about 10 years to knit). Hopefully at some point in the future, I'll have time to knit adult-sized garments.

Until then, I'll keep making bitty baby things, a couple stitches at a time.


PS You didn't think I could write a post without a picture of the bean, did you?



7 Months

{ Wednesday, February 24, 2010 }
With the bean being sick, time has gotten away from me. I'm just getting around to posting the bean's 7 month photo with only a couple days to spare before she turns 8 months old.

At 7 months, the bean has absolutely no interest in crawling, but she is quite the wiggler and climber. And the grabbing! Oh my goodness, this kid wants to hold everything except for the things that we give her to hold. We thought she was grabby at 4 months, but its amazing how much better at it she's gotten. I'm sure I'll be saying the same thing again once she's better able to get around.
The bean now pulls up to standing with very little help and can stay that way for quite a while if she has something to hold on to. She is just starting to figure out how to put one foot in front of the other and will walk with someone holding her hands and will even cruise around furniture (gulp!) if we help steady her midsection as she does it. The bean has also gotten into a sitting position on her own one time, but I don't think she realized that she's the one who put herself in that position because she hasn't done it again since.

The bean has moved on from babbling about mama and baba and is now onto dada. We're glad she's learning how to say new vowels, but for some reason its just not as thrilling to hear as mama is.
Moving on--the bean is still toothless. She teethed like crazy for all of December, but her teeth now seem to be on a break and while we can see them very close to breaking through, they don't seem to be bothering her and haven't made any more downward progress in a month.

The bean continues to work on her pincer grasp and, while she shows no interest in feeding herself the small bits of food we've offered her, she has on more than one ocassion managed to use that first finger and thumb to pick up a little fuzz ball off the floor and pop it into her mouth. Yum!

Speaking of food, the bean is still not too thrilled with the solid stuff. On a good night, she'll agree to take a couple bites before absolutely refusing. At least 3 nights a week, however, she won't open her mouth at all, whether we try to feed her or we try to get her to feed herself. We're still trying to offer new things and hoping she'll take more interest in food once we start giving her stuff with a little more texture to it. Or I might be nursing until she's 5. One of the two.
Most of all, the bean is a very happy, easygoing baby. We knew we were lucky before, but after dealing with Grumpy McGrumperson while she was sick we are so grateful to have our giggly little girl back.

Still Sick

{ Monday, February 22, 2010 }
The bean is STILL sick! I can hardly believe it, but its been over two weeks of high fevers, a runny nose, vomiting, and lots and lots of coughing. Apparently, the bean's immune system was busy fighting off the bronchiolitis when another virus came along and caught her off guard, making her sick, sick, sick. She hasn't been much interested in nursing and what she has been able to eat, she hasn't been able to keep down. We thought she was looking a bit skinny and late last week we noticed a decrease in wet diapers, so we were off yet again to the doctor's office for our third visit since all this started. We were hoping the bean hadn't lost too much weight, but she's down a little over a pound.

The bean has been waking up in the middle of the night crying almost unconsolably and I've been reminded of what it was like those first few weeks with a newborn. Now we are back to counting wet diapers, timing feedings and scheduling weight checks like with a newborn as we work on operation (re)chubby baby.

Thank goodness we're (hopefully) at the tail end of all this craziness and we just need to fatten up our little girl and she'll have an easy recovery.

Ode to Tylenol

{ Thursday, February 11, 2010 }
Tylenol, you are a miracle drug;
if you were a person, I'd give you a hug.
Our baby awakes shortly after midnight;
Cheeks flushed and warm, what to do for our plight?
I find the thermometer, wishing I could sleep more;
I'm wide awake when I see a temp of 102.4!

Quickly, we look for that red and white label.
There you are (our savior!), on the night table.
One holds her arms; the other, the head;
getting her to drink is the part that I dread.
I swear under my breath as our operation goes south,
why won't this kid just open her mouth?

Finally we say enough is enough,
with her face and our bed covered with the stuff.
Thank you, Tylenol, her fever has passed!
I drift off to sleep wondering why you taste like such ass?
When she sees the bottle, she tries to escape.
Can you blame her? Your flavor should be called dirt, not cherry or grape.

Forewarned doesn't mean anything

{ Tuesday, February 09, 2010 }
Well, we knew it was coming. We expected it and were warned by, well, everyone. Still, the reality of the daycare sickness is harder than we expected. And it came sooner. Just two weeks at the place, only two days without her moms, and the bean has bronchiolitis. She's miserable and has spent much of the last three days groaning or outright crying. Its certainly not helping that her moms keep coming at her with the ultimate baby torture devices--saline drops and a nasal aspirator.

I know this is not at all uncommon and that all babies go through this, but that knowledge doesn't make it any easier to see the thermometer up above 100 and to see the bean not able to nurse because she can't breathe through her nose. It breaks my heart to see her in pain and know that there's precious little I can do about it. Get better soon bean!

More daycare

{ Monday, February 01, 2010 }
We spent an hour a day at the bean's daycare last week under the guise of getting her acclimated to it, although the reality is that it was probably more for us than for her. From the first day, she seemed completely comfortable playing with all the toys and watching the older kids crawl around. We benefitted more from seeing the daily routine and watching the providers caring for the other babies. I had planned to write detailed directions on how to get the bean to take her bottle and how to get her to sleep, but it was quickly apparent that this would be unnecessary. These women take care of babies for a living and they know what they're doing.

By the end of the week, we both felt completely comfortable leaving the bean and we did just that--we left her there and went out for breakfast. She was fine, although we were both wrecks. It occured to me as we were slipping out that this was the first time ever in her life that she wasn't with either of her moms and that thought brought the tears. I kissed her little head and waved over my shoulder to the care providers because I knew if I looked back it would be all over. The boy was more stoic, but did rush me through my breakfast and, although we had meant to be gone for an hour, we were back in 45 minutes. We peeked in the little window and saw the bean sitting on someone's lap having a grand time. When we walked in, she saw us and reached for us both, which was the best feeling ever.

This week is the real thing--she starts going for two 1/2 days per week on her own. I'm sure she'll love it and I hope to be able to stop crying about it at some point as well!