17 month updates

So it's been 5 months since I last updated the Tiny Squee blog. That's nearly 1/3 of her life. That's unfortunate. She's doing so many new things. New things every day, in fact.

She talks(ish). She says:
Mama
Dada
Meemoo
Bubble
Ladlladlladl - water
Nanoo - usually means snack, which is mostly composed of cereal and Just Fruit, sometimes it means some other food she really wants.
Dadoo - things related to "manly" activities. Pickup trucks. Tools.
BaBA (the stress is always on the second syllable) - stairs. This is usually said several times over, as in BaBA baBA baBA!
Woof
Hithhhh - the sound a snake makes
Moo
Vroom - the sound a motorcycle or an airplane makes
Wow

She knows baby signs:
Airplane
Apple
Bathtime (although she doesn't use this one much anymore)
Bicycle (which she also uses for motorcycle, but with more vrooming added)
Bread
Dog (often accompanied by woofing)
Grapes
Hairbrush(ing)
Hat (one of her favorites)
Potty
Please
Toothbrush(ing)

Her favorite things are hats, dogs, water, and motorcycles (with bicycles a close second). She will point out every single hat, dog, or motorcycle that she sees. She is very observant and she never lies. She often will point out that people riding motorcycles and bicycles are wearing helmets. Helmets are an integral part of the motor/bicycle riding process. Water can be in bottles, rivers, oceans, pictures, drops. It's amazing how often there are hats, dogs, bikes, and water to be seen.

She has a favorite Portland Magazine that we have gone through countless times. She will point out all of her favorite things on each page. At the beginning of the magazine, there is a picture of a snake on a laptop screen. When we open to this page, it always involves a good hithhhing.

We were making a lot of progress with the potty and had moved into underwear instead of diapers for most of the day when we were at home. However, recently she's decided that she no longer wants to sit on the potty most of the time. She's decided this vehemently and will vigorously shake her head if you ask her if she has to potty. If you take her into the bathroom anyhow, there is screaming and arching of the back. It turns out that it's impossible to put an arching, screaming toddler on the potty. So sometimes, she puts the peepee in the diaper instead of the potty. Oh well, she'll get it eventually.

She's started to act like a tiny little kid instead of a very large baby. She has very specific wants. This morning, she wanted to carry her painting (which is in a frame sitting up on the bookshelf) outside. She wanted to draw on the glass of the frame with her markers. Once she'd accomplished this goal, she was willing to draw on paper, but she wouldn't even consider drawing on the paper until the glass had been suitably decorated.

She likes to carry a bowl of nanoo around with her when she wants a snack. Consequently, there are a lot of bowls that have contained nanoo that she sometimes finds around the house. She will point at them or pick them up and request nanoo, nanoo, nanoo. She wanted nanoo for breakfast this morning. We debated appropriate breakfast foods: "Nanoo." "Eggs." "Nanoo." "Eggs." "Nanoo." "Eggs." Etc.

She's a very good eater, overall. She will try most foods. Current favorites are pasta with cheese, steamed spinach, grapes, blueberries, avocado. Recently discarded favorites are string cheese and peanut butter sandwiches. Sometimes she will only eat food that has been taken off Mama or Dada's plate, even if it is exactly the same as the food on her plate. She sometimes uses a fork or spoon effectively, but mostly still eats with her hands. She drinks water out of a shot glass at most meals. During the rest of the day, she drinks out of a water bottle with a straw.

She's turning into a real person!

Things that Sterling does now that are like a real person:

• She started pointing at things. Today. It's so weird that one day she doesn't do something and the next day, she does.
• She signs "milk" and "potty" and occasionally actually does want what she's signing. 
• She just learned the "bathtime" sign and uses it when she's in the bathtub. Yesterday, she was sitting on the potty and looked at the tub and signed "bathtime".
• She can stand on her own. Not for long, and not very often, but she can do it.
• She can walk down the hall if you hold her hands.
• She gained over a pound in 10 days. Can we say "growth spurt"?
• Mike says she pointed at the dog and said "woo, woo, woo" today.
• She can open and shut the dishwasher, and occasionally does so on command.
• When she was in the bath tub tonight, Mike told her "give the shark to Mama" and she did.
• She helps unload the washer and hands individual diapers to me to put in the dryer.
• She loves to open and shut doors.
• She can drink through a straw.
• She puts things into other things. And takes them out. And puts them in. And takes them out.

Real crawling

In the past couple of days, Sterling has started doing authentic, belly-off-the-ground crawling nearly all the time. She's actually quite a bit slower crawling this way than she was doing the military crawl.

She can read!

Well, not quite. But she's learned to turn pages in the book. It's awesome. She will grab the page of a board book and turn it in the right direction. She requires a little assistance (she has trouble getting a hold of just one page and will often just turn to the end of the book), but this is really the first grown-up thing that she's learned to do. I'm very proud.

She is also getting into feeling the books that have textures on the pages.

Pulling up

She's pulling up on everything now. This morning, she pulled up on the couch, my recliner, and my legs. Unfortunately, she hasn't mastered the dismount yet.

Pulling up

Tiny Squee has started pulling up on her knees pretty regularly. I think she likes the higher point of view. 

 

She's also started pulling up on things to an actual standing position. But often she falls down pretty shortly after she pulls up. Luckily, she hasn't bonked herself on the head yet.

Mobility, we almost has it.

Today, she managed to scoot forward about a foot towards something she really wanted. The "something" was an envelope, which she chewed into a soggy purple wad within a minute of reaching it. She's still better at turning around in circles than she is at moving forward, but I believe good progress was made today.

Tiny Toes

I meant to post a while back when Sterling discovered her toes. I didn't quite get to it. She can now get them into her mouth when she's not wearing a diaper (cloth diapers are pretty bulky and prevent her from wiggling as freely as she might like).

Wonder Weeks (12 weeks)

I'm pretty sure that we're through our 12 week developmental leap. Like the last one, I think she was about a week late. She's 14 weeks old and I think that she just finished it a couple of days ago. Here's what was supposed to happen (with the things that I've observed bolded).

BODY CONTROL

• Barely needs support to keep his head upright
• Smooth head movement when turning to one side
• Smooth eye movement when following a moving object
• Is generally more lively and energetic
• Playfully lifts her bottom when her diaper is being changed
• Rolls independently from back to stomach (or vice versa) while holding on to your fingers (we haven't tried this yet)
• Sticks his toes in his mouth and twists around (I'm not sure she can reach her toes)
• Sits up straight when leaning against you
• Pulls herself into a sitting position while holding onto your fingers
• Is able to move into a standing position when seated on your lap by holding on to two of your fingers
• Uses both feet to push off when seated in a bouncing chair or lying in a playpen (she'll push off our hands when laying on her stomach)

HAND CONTROL

• Grabs and clutches at objects with both hands
• Shakes a rattle once or twice
• Studies and plays with your hands
• Studies and touches your face, eyes, mouth, and hair
• Studies and plays with your clothes
• Puts everything into her mouth
• Strokes her head, from neck to eyes
• Rubs a toy along her head or cheek (especially her taggie blanket)

LISTENING AND TALKING

• Discovers shrieking and gurgling; can easily shift between loud and soft tones, low notes and high ones
• Produces new sounds that resemble the vowels of real speech: ee, ooh, ehh, oh, aah, ay
• Uses these sounds to "chat"
• Is able to blow saliva bubbles, and laughs as if she finds this very amusing

LOOKING AND SEEING

• Turns hands over, studies both sides
• Studies her own moving feet
• Studies a face, eyes, mouth, and hair
• Studies someone's clothing

OTHER SKILLS

• Expresses enjoyment by watching, looking, listening, grabbing, or by "talking", then waiting for your response
• Uses different behavior with different people
• Expresses boredom if she sees, hears, tastes, feels, or does the same things too often; variety suddenly becomes important

Wonder Weeks - 12 week jump

I think Sterling is going through her 12 week mental development jump. She's been much crankier than usual, is totally refusing to nap unless she's nursing, and also refuses to be put down. Awesome.

Rolling and Pride!

Sterling has a new trick - she can roll into her right side. I'm very proud.

The first time she did it (June 16th), I had put her on her back under her play structure and gone into the kitchen. When I came back, she was laying on her side. So of course, I took a picture:

The next day, she rolled from her back to her side 5 or 6 times. She hasn't done it again today, but she hasn't had much chance for free-range wiggle time.

Rather than allow our child to practice her new-found rolling abilities, we went to the gay pride festival and watched a little bit of the parade, went for lunch, and then wandered through the booths at the festival. Sterling slept through the parade, woke up for lunch (ours and hers), then took another nap while we wandered through the festival.

Lunch at Cafe Yumm

Nursing at the festival with my Lact-aid.

She laughed at me!

After changing her diaper this morning, I was blowing on her tummy and making a silly noise. She looked at me, smiled, and laughed "ehh ehhh!" It was totally a laugh and not just a cooing noise. It's the first time I've definitely heard her laugh.

Holding up her head

We haven't done much tummy time with Sterling laying on her stomach on the floor because she usually doesn't like it. She does spend a fairly large amount of time laying tummy-to-tummy with one of us, which is where she does her head-lifting exercises. She's doing quite well, I think.

Grabbing!

Sterling has advanced past hitting things into grabbing. She's gotten quite adept at grabbing her hanging ball. Recently, she's even gotten enough pull that she can turn on the musical bug that we've attached the ball to. It plays "if you're happy and you know it," which is now perpetually stuck in my head.

She hasn't gotten to the point where she'll grab at something that we offer to her, but I'm sure that's not far off now.

She's also developed an interest in wringing her hands, folding them in front of her chest, and chewing on them. She can nearly fit an entire fist into her mouth.

Hitting things

Stuff other than nursing issues is happening with the baby. She's really getting into batting at things with her hands and she can grab at her ball now and catch it fairly regularly. She spending a lot more time interacting with her hanging toys by trying to hit at them. She's doing an awesome job.

Wonder Weeks - Development

On the advice of one of my milk donors, I got a book called The Wonder Weeks. The premise of the book is that babies go through big periods of mental change at predictable times during their development. The first one is around 6 weeks, the second is around 8 weeks, the next is around 12 weeks.

The change around 8 weeks involves baby being able to recognize patterns in the world around him and in his body. As this change is taking place, baby gets cranky, cries a lot, and generally wants to be held ALL the time. The 8-week fussy period is apparently longer and more intense than the 6-week or the 12-week period.

I'm pretty sure we're going through one of these changes. This is probably the 8 week change, or (less likely) the 12 week change a little early. Sterling will be 10 weeks old on Friday. She's been unusually cranky, hasn't wanted to be set down very much (unless she's practicing her wiggling), and is way more high maintenance than she usually is. She also has been taking much more of an interest in what's going on around her.

Here's what she's probably doing developmentally. This is taken directly from the book, so I hope I'm not violating their copyright. Bolded items are things that I've observed her doing up until now.

BODY CONTROL - generally she seems to be very advanced in this category. She's been holding her head up fairly well for a while and she's been wiggling in a purposeful way on her mat for at least two weeks.

• holds head upright when very alert (she particularly does this when being carried in the wrap or when being burped)
• consciously turns head towards something interesting
• consciously rolls from side onto stomach
• consciously rolls from side onto back
• kicks legs and waves arms (she's an expert wiggler)
• kicks at plaything with jerking movements (her aim is getting better, too)
• allows herself to be pulled into a sitting position
• allows himself to be pulled into a standing position
• tries to lift head and body when lying facedown
• shows increased desire to sit
• is able to look left and right when lying on stomach
• makes faces

HAND CONTROL - I think this area is coming along right behind body control. When she wiggles, she's more adept at kicking at hanging toys than she is at batting them with her hands. However, she's getting much better at it with practice.

• swipes at toys
• attempts to grab objects within reach but does not succeed
• closes hand around objects within easy reach
• holds plaything and moves it jerkily up and down
• touches and feels objects while holding them

LOOKING AND SEEING - she likes to look at stuff, but I haven't observed most of these things. 

• discovers hands
• discovers feet
• discovers knees
• watches people moving or working
• is fascinated by children playing close by
• enjoys watching fast-moving images on TV
• watches pets eating or moving
• is fascinated by waving curtains
• discovers luminous object, such as a flickering candle (or lights)
• watches treetops outdoors and is particularly fascinated by movements such as rustling leaves (definitely - she was leaning way back in the wrap so she could look up at the trees when we went for a walk yesterday)
• looks at items on grocery store shelves
• looks at complex shapes and colors
• is fascinated by shiny things (she likes to look at herself in a mirror, I wonder if that's the same thing)
• enjoys watching people chewing food
• enjoys watching and listening to people talk
• watches facial gestures

LISTENING AND CHATTING - she's gotten very chatty recently. 

• enjoys listening to voices, singing, and high-pitched sounds
• makes short bursts of sound such as ah, uh, eh, mmm, and listens to self
• makes a series of sounds, mumbles, and gurgles as if telling a story
• repeats these sounds if encouraged
• sings along when you dance and sing with him
• chats to and smiles at cuddly toys
• consciously makes eh sounds to attract attention
• interrupts while others are talking

Babies apparently don't work on all of these things at once - they pick the things that are the most important to them. Based on this, I think she's working on gross motor skills, looking at people's faces, and talking to people. She hasn't discovered her hands yet, so she doesn't seem particularly interested in most of the tactile things. I started reading books to her every night and she listens intently, sometimes interjecting comments. She also looks at the pictures. She hasn't tried to reach out and grab the book at all yet. Hopefully she'll get over the fussy stage pretty soon. After the fussy stage is supposed to be a period of calm, happy baby time while she practices all her new skills.

Funny!

I'm almost positive that Sterling laughed for the first time last night. Then, this morning when we were changing her (ginormous, messy, poopy) diaper, she did it again! I'm excited. Baby laughing!