Visit From Bubbe & Papa

We had a really nice, though short, visit from Bubbe & Papa yesterday. We took some video, but they took most of the pictures, so if they give them to us - get a CD made! - we can post them.

Most of the day was spent feeding shara, which is typical. We had lunch, then went for a swim. Bubbe & Papa watched and enjoyed relaxing by the pool. Shara had fun and made car noices as we sped her around the pool. She even did kickies like a pollywog and blew bubbles in the water. I think that was unintentional, but didn't bother her.

We then went and played in the family room. Shara took 3 or 4 turns around the room with her walker. She did the same with her daddy in the morning. She had a lot of exercise. She was tired, but also full of energy. She loved playing with the pail & shovel Bubbe brought, and showed all of her tricks - said "papa", something that could have been "bubbe", "bye", "hi", etc. Threw food on the floor, grabbed her poopy diaper while changing, all the fun stuff! One thing she did which raised all of our eyebrows - made a funny face and noise, then touched her crotch. It seemed that she knew she pee'd, and we immediately changed her diaper. Don't know if it was that or if she just realized she was needing a change. Either way, no one's ever noticed that she's never noticed before.


Bubbe & Shara playing on the computer. 

Using a spoon

Last night Shara used mommy's spoon quite successfully to eat her peas. She did a great job! She's also been enjoying the pool and we have to start trying some of the swimming lessons in the Waterbabies book, which neighbor Anne Marie gave to us.

At the market yesterday, Shara was the store greeter. I was picking out blueberries right across from the entrance and she was saying "Hi" to many of the people who entered the store. I thought it was cute. I assume others did as well. She wasn't screaming it, but saying it in a conversational voice. I can't say she had a conversational voice the whole time we were there. Much of the time was spent exercising her vocal cords.

Shara's also been practicing singing a lot now. We have to record her because it's so cute. She uses a really high, sqeaky voice. She also dances like this "puppy" at school. You sqeeze it's hand and it sings "love hurts, love stinks" (I can't remember the band, but not J. Giles) and rocks back and forth. If you ask her to dance like the puppy at school, she'll start rocking back and forth and gets really happy.

Standing Unsupported

Last night Shara stood unsupported for at least 5 seconds. She's so solid she could do it for longer, but squatted down and crawled onto something else. She also walked next to me for the first time, rather than me walking behind her, holding her hand (even if it was just 1 hand I was holding.)
She's also saying:
Hi Jake - a boy at school
bye, which I forgot to mention before, but she's been saying that for a while
She oo's like a monkey and ss's like a bee, does raspberries for a car, or when she's on her trike or using a walker.
She's used a spoon a couple of times - has an easy time getting it in her mouth, but hard time getting food on it. Brushes her teeth very willingly, especially since we got her a Pooh toothbrush.

Our "Toddler" Shara

She isn't walking by herself yet, but any day now! Last week wasn't too pleasant but after reading a little about the mind of a toddler, things seem much better. I have much lower expectations for myself and her. I've also learned to only push the really important things or I'm going to be saying no to everything, though it seems like I'm already doing that! Our list of house rules is growing, mostly all safety related.

As far as the tooth brushing, we're doing that where and when we can. She's not fussing about it much anymore and I'm guessing because I'm not making it a struggle. But of course that could change tomorrow and she won't let me brush again!

She is really fun and starting to say so many things. I've recognized the following words; cat, ball, duck, drink, yeah, book, up, mom (lots of them now), dad, all done. I think they probably all sound about the same to the untrained ear, but she's saying and understanding so much. It's really cool.

I'm almost mentally prepared for our trip to Long Island - the first long car ride and hotel stay. Should be very exciting for all of us!

Real Parenting

In the last couple of weeks we've finally reached the phase of parenting, vs. caretaker. now begins the need for discipline & the art of negotiation. I'm sure it will only get more challenging. I remember what I was like as a kid.

We've also been having dinner as a family each night and Shara appears to be eating more. Last night we had turkey, spinach, feta & mint burgers and she ate a whole one!

Vitamins Baby

We started Shara on the vitamins last week - multi w/flouride & iron. She certainly has more energy! I was also telling people that we have our sweet happy baby back. For a while, she was rather cranky, but last week she was all smiles and laughing - real belly laughs. One evening I was letting her explore the kitchen/dining room area and she got so excited to be in places she isn't usually in "by herself". She was just so happy she was laughing as she pulled herself up on a dining room chair, or a kitchen chair. It was funny and great to see her so happy.

Well this week she's back to being a bit moody and we think it's teething related. She had a "no reason fever" on Friday. It was 101.7 under the arm, so that was pretty high and wouldn't be that high just for teething, but the next day it was gone. I think she runs high and it's normal for her to have really high fevers. We're going to keep an eye on her ear that had some fluid in it at her last appointment. It wasn't infected and we've been working on helping it drain, but maybe it's getting infected now.

Yesterday we went into Cambridge to go to lunch and Trader Joe's. We had lunch at Redbones in Somerville. Shara really liked the pulled pork and pulled beef. She also enjoyed the black eyed peas but not the pickles. I was surprised about the peas because they were a little spicy. Not hot spicy but heavily flavored. We ended on her new favorite - Gerber vegetable crackers. Leave it to Gerber to make addictive baby foods. It used to be their finger food puffs. At least with the crackers she doesn't have to eat 80 for a serving and they are enriched and low sodium. We then went to Trader Joes where Shara started acting like a true toddler. She had her hands on everything and I gave her a banana to carry and I don't know how many times I picked it up. Then a can of kidney beans which are now under some rack, lost until they remodel. Alan finally came back from MicroCenter, and I was thankful because I was not happy with how many times I had to tell Shara "no". I don't like to be telling her to stop everything she's doing, but everything she was doing was worthy of a "no". After Joe's we took a little walk by the river and then stopped at the farmer's market down there. It was a good one, though small. We got peas, radishes and some baked goods. They didn't have any blueberries or peaches, but I had gotten strawberries at Joes so we weren't looking at a fruit emergency.

At home we had a snack - granola bar & strawberries, played for a while downstairs then had dinner. Shara appeared to be headed for a good night sleep - went to bed with no problems - but at 1:30 woke up as she had done a few times last week. After getting her water, cuddling, then finally nursing her a little, I got her to sleep, but not without a struggle. I did have to leave her room with her screaming, but she settled down almost immediately after. We don't know if they're bad dreams, or what, but I scared of it becoming a habit.