First of all, we're working on standing. It's not frequent and it always happens by accident. Typically, she's rummaging around in her toy chest, which is super cute to watch because she can barely reach down, into it without having to stand on her tippy-toes. She'll stand on one foot on her toes with the other foot extended elegantly behind her as she reaches for the object of her desire. I don't care what Marcus says, she was clearly born to be a ballerina. Anyone with extension such as that is destined for the stage. Anyway, after she's reached her goal she'll stand, holding on to her toy, not realizing she's perfectly balanced between her two feet. It's just a matter of time now before she takes those first, tentative steps.
Another new trick of Alex's is her burgeoning ability to wave "bye-bye." She pretty much does it on her own and when she's asked to do it she doesn't. Instead she sits there, staring, looking at all of the damn fools surrounding her, until we turn to leave and she starts taking her entire arm and moving it up and down. This morning when I dropped her off at daycare I watched as she turned in her highchair and waved at her friends who were playing on the floor. They didn't notice and she didn't notice that they didn't notice but the whole thing made me sad and it got me thinking about when she's older and her friends ignore her and potentially make her sad how will I react? Probably not very well.
The other day I taught Alex how to kiss which sounds wildly inappropriate but I can assure you, it is not. It started while we were playing with all of her stuffed animals. One by one I brought them up to her face and gave her a "kiss." After two or three times she started leaning in for it. So, then, on a whim I went in for the kill and she responded so sweetly by leaning forward with her lips pressed together. She's such a good kisser that in just a matter of a few short days she's learned a few variations: Open mouth, which she doesn't necessarily save for those closest to her; Slip-o'-the-tongue, which is not as appealing as it sounds; or, lips-pursed-together-style which, out of all three, is the kind I prefer. Again, when I try and show people her new trick she does not comply thus making me look like a total fool. I'm beginning to suspect she does this on purpose.
A favorite new game of hers is rolling the ball back and forth. She loves it so much her little legs kick the floor in anticipation. She also likes to make sure all parties are involved. If she is playing with one person but sees another person sitting on the couch she'll roll it to the person on the couch. If she is playing with one person in the living room and sees someone in the kitchen she'll crawl towards them with her ball, sit in the middle of the floor, and roll the ball between the two. I'm not sure where she gets this whole sharing thing because it's something I've never been very good at especially if it involves anything of the french fry variety. It must be something they teach in daycare.
Finally, we've been struggling with her food intake for quite a while now. She just wasn't interested in what we were feeding her. We made all of her food from the time she was 6 months old and, up until December, she devoured everything we made. Then, it was like a switch went off and she was no longer interested. Part of the problem came from the urgency we felt to get her to eat chunkier food rather than pureed. We started giving her all chunky food and the texture really threw her off. Then, I think she became not so fond of our cooking and would stick a tentative tongue out to taste what was on the spoon only to immediately turn her head away. This went on for a very long time. We finally found a few solutions one of which was ground up spaghetti and another of which was adding pureed baby food as a type of gravy to the more solid, chunky food. Now, we've moved on to her feeding herself and things seems to be going much better. The only problem that comes with self-feeding is she hoards her food in her cheeks like a chipmunk only she isn't a chipmunk so then she starts choking and gagging and, well, you can guess what happens next. This is becoming a nightly routine and one I am not fond of but we're working on it. So far, some of her favorite foods are spaghetti, pizza, pirogues, and kielbasa. She is a bit of a Polish girl after all! One other thing she does is she drinks from her sippy cup and boy, the way she drinks from it, you'd think she'd been lost in the Sahara for months. She takes the cup, tilts it all the way up, and chugs, and chugs, and chugs, then stops for a quick breather, then she's back at it again. By the time she's done she does look a bit like she's been in a desert, or working out really hard, because her entire front is soaked through.
There aren't any real updates on the vocabulary front though it's obvious she understands quite a bit. If I ask her to bring something to me she will do it (only after like, 20 requests), and she definitely understands "no-no" though very rarely complies and instead looks at me with the most mischievous grin. She knows where she's allowed to be in the house and where she isn't allowed to be though she typically gives herself away by laughing as she puts it into hyper-drive and crawls towards the forbidden zones. She's also very interested in the electronic gadgets though mostly she wants to chew on them. After removing it from her mouth a million times it soon dawns on us that this has been a game the whole time and we are just her pawns. All in all I'm pretty sure we're in for it over the next few years. This girl clearly has a mind of her own and she isn't afraid to use it and you know what? I'm OK with that.
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| Obligatory cute picture for your enjoyment. |
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