Ladybug Games

Ladybug has discovered some new activities recently.   She had mostly been ignoring her dolls until the last month or so when she realized all the different things she can pretend with them.  Now her dolls dance, clap, nap, and even need their diapers changed.  I am excited about getting her some doll acessories to enhance her imaginative play.  A stroller, furniture, and whatnot. I think she would love it.

Her latest love, though, is scribbling.  Crayons, pens, pencils.  Loves them all.  We went to IKEA the other day, and I saw this easel that I would love to get her:

Here is a picture of her engaged in her favorite activities (scribbling and standing on a chair at the table) while wearing her tutu:

Talking Away

This morning I got my regular “Your toddler this week” email, and it mentioned sentences.  Funny how those emails always seem to be exactly on track with what Ladybug is up to.

The last few months have been word explosion around here, which I may have mentioned before.  She has a ridiculous number of clearly understandable words and even more that seem to mean something that we haven’t figured out yet.  But in the past couple of weeks, she has started putting words together to make little sentences.

“Go get”

“Your turn”

“Where’s/There’s Papa/Mama”

et cetera.

We are so proud! 

On the move

Ladybug took her time getting around to walking. She seemed on the cusp for months, but she didn’t take her first independent steps until she was 13 months old.  And those steps didn’t quite take.  Crawling was so much faster that walking hardly seemed a better option.  Now at 15 months, she’s finally walking more than crawling.  And quite frankly, it still seems so surreal to see such a little person just get up and take off on her own two feet. 

Too long…

Clearly I have neglected this blog.  Here are a few highlights in our lives:

• Walking!
• Talking!
• Signing!

Ladybug just got back from a week-long (and I mean long!) trip to Gram and Grandpa’s house in Chicago.  We missed her like crazy!

We went out and about today to a puppet show at the library.  Check out the pics:

Click here for more about the puppet show

Almost 10 months

At nearly ten months old, Ladybug has:

• Had her first cold
• Started school
• Been to Chicago again
• Eaten “circle oat cereal”
• Had pinkeye and a double ear infection.

That last one is today.  Poor little one is having a rough day.  She’s a real trooper though!

9 months, less 2 days…

Pops here.

On Saturday Miss Bug will be 9 months. I maintain that this is going even faster for me than it does for parents who start younger. Ever since age 25 I feel like that scene in Star Wars when they go into hyper drive. Remember that? Still and placid stars in an instant blur into infinite lines and you are hopelessly catapulted into the future, each moment exponentially shorter than the last. I know most of you know of what I speak, but I have a way of stumbling upon “epiphanies” that are basically common sense and common to everyone. I tend to be a little slow…

Enough about me! Booger is crawling around like crazy. She’s so very fast, and even more stealthy; a moments diverted attention and she’s in the kitchen or her room or trying to get out the front door. She pulls herself up onto everything, whether it’s stable enough to support her or not. (papa prays that this trend does not figuratively follow her into adolescence…) She used to pull herself up and then panic when she realized that she didn’t have a clear plan on how to get down. Then she discovered the convenience of a diapered butt. Her Grandmother gets such a kick when baby stands up, looks around for a second, then leans back, and with a little *thud* is on her butt, rolls back to her knees and is off to explore more.

Speaking of Grandmother (yes, she actually prefers that moniker. ha), Boog and I dropped in for a surprise visit to Grandmother’s work yesterday. While she didn’t have long to visit, she was ecstatic. She snatched baby from my arms and proudly presented her to all her employees. Needless to say she was a hit. Grandmother put her on the bed of a tow truck and took a few staged shoots with baby’s hand on a ratcheting tie-down strap. Then papa and baby did some tricks for our captive audience, demonstrating lil’ miss’ strength and complete lack of fear. haha…

Yesterday the family also visited our first daycare. This was a real wake-up for me. My daughter’s going to have to be out in the world, away from our protective hands, with other kids who will demonstrate useful as well as not-so-useful habits, and will be watched over by adults I’m going to have to learn how to trust. But they haven’t seen her every milestone and they don’t know all her little quirks and preferences!!! No no… It’ll be fine, pops. These people are trained and caring; some of these kids are pretty advanced as well. Our daughter is flummoxingly observant, imitating much of our speech and mannerisms. I think being around kids similar in age to her will be better than just staying home will me. Not to mention these facilities often have more educational toys and more room for her to wander around and explore without someone rushing to take something from her or stopping her from eating something. That, and the time… I try very hard to do things with her at home. We read stories, I get down on the floor and play with her… But I’m often tired from working the night previous. And she’s extremely social, which translates to clingy when it’s just me around. If there are others in the room with whom she can freely engage and disengage, she’s a rather independent player/learner. No, this will be good. Thanks for your help talking me through that.     :~P

Booger just woke up, so I’ll have to try and post more another time. Take care!

Baby in the summertime

Miss Ladybug is sitting on my lap content to babble away about who-knows-what.  She sounds so matter of fact about her nonsense that I could easily be convinced that she knows exactly what she means to be saying.  My heart melts every time she says “mama” even though it’s pretty clear that she isn’t associating the word with me.  It’s just another fun sound to make.

Her favorite thing these days is catching herself in the mirror.  There is a small mirror that attaches to her playpad, and it is hilarious to see her smile so big at a glimpse of the baby in the mirror.  She’ll smile and talk to the baby for several minutes–an eternity in baby time.

It has been a busy summer with new jobs/new schedules, papa-daughter road trips, and more.  And this weekend is our convention!  Yikes!

10 Days shy of 7 Months….

Apologies for the recent infrequency of posts. This is Papa again. (i’ll probably be doing the majority of posts for a while. mom’s acclimating herself to a new job.)

Ms. Bugg is growing like a cooing, smiley, and very active squishy weed.

She’s on the cusp of crawling. She definitely moves, but it’s more a process of half hands-and-knees, half tummy-dragging army crawl-shuffle. Unfortunately she does most of her learning to crawl whilst crying. She’s getting better, but is still pretty needy and doesn’t like to play alone unless she’s intensely preoccupied.

She does, however, love her rolling walker and will zip across the kitchen floor for long periods all by herself. We initially had sworn to never use one of them as, Mom read, they apparently don’t encourage proper leg strength and development. But, since she’s been not only standing (with balancing aid), but actually pushing herself to a standing position on her own since just after her 3 month mark, we weren’t all that concerned with it inhibiting her leg strength. While I’m cleaning or cooking, she moves all over the kitchen in her little rolling ride. And, despite the carpet, she gets pretty far into the dining room as well.

She’s quite verbal. Usually rather content, if not bouncing and giddily grinning, she rambles and sputters and tries to emulate our speech. She knows her name–even the long form, not just the shortened form we end up usually using when talking to and about her. As a matter of fact, often she’ll respond to her real name before she does the nickname.

“They” say kids start to develop fear of certain people around 6 months. Before that, kids don’t really differentiate between new and familiar faces on a comfort level. Ladybug is either running behind on this milestone or is a born extrovert. You can tell she recognizes people and enjoys seeing them again, and you can also tell when she’s examining a new face of a person holding her for the first time. Either way, people other than mom and dad are a sure-fire way to brighten her up from a grouchy mood. My, that child loves people…

More soon, hopefully…

Kids are like….

Mom has been kinda camping on the ol’ baby blog, so this is Pops. (My narratives tend toward being more meandering and story-time-ish than Mom’s. Bear with me.  ;~)   )

Miss Bug is almost 6 months old now. She hasn’t started crawling yet, but she scoots around on her stomach, pushing with her legs and hands. She loves eye contact. She’ll hold your gaze until either you look away or when she smiles too big and just tithers into her shoulder. It’s terribly adorable. (her mom tithers in the exact same way. ha! it’s funny what things seem to be hereditary. )

Booger also babbles. A lot. (yeah yeah… we all know where she got that from. :~D  ) She does copy words we use, but it’s apparent she doesn’t really know what they mean. The other day during a particularly stressful drive she broke the bad vibe by finally parroting what I’ve been trying to get her to say all week. “MOMOMOMOMOMOMOMOMOMOM….”

Right at this moment she’s making silly excited cooing noises at herself in a mirror attached to her Play Pad. She’s smiling really big and her voice is very sing-song-y. People at the Kingdom Hall keep remarking that she’s such a happy baby. While she certainly has her less-than-content times, for the most part she does have a rather cheery disposition.

In slightly related news, I’ve heard two kid-related quotes that make me laugh:

-Having a kid is like having a dog that slowly learns to talk.

-Being around a baby is like being around your drunk friend; it’s funny for the first hour, but then you just get sick of taking care of them.

(mom doesn’t always appreciate those, but i think they’re hilarious. haha)

Walka-walka-walka

Walkers aren’t really “in” these days, and I admit I was skeptical about it when this was passed on to us.  But it turns out that Ladybug loves her walker.