New Game

My mama and I came up with a new game today. Jump! It's when I sit on the edge of the couch and "jump" off into my mama's waiting arms. We were both delighted!

Most Important Accomplishment!

My mama said the most important accomplishment was left off the list! (along with the fact that I sign "light," too) The most exciting accomplishment to her and my daddy are that I give kisses. Tonight, I showed her how much I missed her by giving lots of kisses, especially when asked. I know she loves them, and I know she loves me. I love her, too. I think is starting to believe it!

More Developments

My mama got me on the scale today after she got on. I am definitely over 16 pounds. According to the scale I am 16.8 pounds, but that is most likely off. Still, I have got to be over 16 pounds. She decided to weigh me after my daddy said I felt heavier. She thought I was heavier but passed it off as part of her being sick. Nope, I bigger!

Also, I am walking 5-6 steps every day multiple times a day. This is getting easier and easier, though when I'm tired (or sick) I am not able to do as well. My daddy says I will soon start walking 5-6 easy and try 8-10 at a time to challenge myself. We'll just have to see.

New Developments

The other day I was playing around when I saw the stair gate was open. I scooted on over there and put my hands up on the step in readiness. Then I thought I should tell someone first, so I looked for my mama and there she was asking if I wanted to climb the stairs. "Yes, I do," I thought. And I did. All the way up. One by one, quickly at first, just like big people climb stairs one after the other, not all legs on one step before tackling the next. Then I got a bit tired so I slowed down. I was going pretty slow at the top, but I made it! I crawled around a bit and sat in a heap near the edge of the top. My mama thought that meant maybe I was giving up on coming down. Really I was just trying to get back into position to come down. I stuck my legs out and scooted till I was sitting on the first step with my legs dangling and my toes touching. Then I carefully roll over on to my belly so my hands are under me. Then I can just reach with one leg and put my toes down. I did that over and over, one by one, till I was all the way down. Whoop! Up the stairs! Zoop! Down the stairs! What an accomplishment!

I remember months ago when Olivia was first pointing at everything. Well, I'm on the job now. I have pointing parties all the time. Mama and I do "ET phone home" all the time.

Another development is not so pleasing or amusing but will pass quickly. My mama got sick from school germies, and now I am not feeling my best either. I am stuffy and had a fever. My mama got out the old Snugglewool and kept me warm and nursing. My fever broke after a few hours. I am and have been doing very well, though, mostly my usual self. I'm glad I have my mama to comfort me, because that's what I need the most.

After waking without a fever for the first time in hours, I tested out a new sound--a gurgly sound like Malcolm makes. It was fun! My mama loves Malcolm's sound and is wondering if this one will stick around.

Finally, not so new but still, my mama realized that I have signed many different signs over the time: milk, potty, all finished, up, poop, dog, book, more....and more to come!

Food Adventures

Malcolm's First Birthday: The Movie

Growing Me

One of them, anyway. I am moving and interacting with my environment more. My mama likes to put out different things for me to explore. I mostly like the couches, though. Climbing is my favorite. I climb up the chair and point at the picture of my mama and daddy. That makes my mama smile because she loves the story behind that picture.

I am ready to use the next level of things -- smaller things, more complicated things, heavier things. Still, some things I am not ready for. My mama bought me some paperback books for $.25 across from Uncle Raji's house because their whole block was having a yard sale. These are books and a block game for later when I am not so mouthy or destructive in my exploration and learning.

She also decided that day to look through the bag of older kid clothes to see if anything her college volleyball coach gave her would fit. Some things did! I really am getting bigger. None of us understand the sizing on clothing, though. I fit things from 6 mths to 2 years. Although, she ordered some bigger size diapers for nighttime -- the choices were infant and standard. They are super nice but enormous! We'll have to see what they look like after some washes, but it's a good thing I have some growing to do. My mama is starting to think those Grow-with-me Little Beetle wool diaper covers might come back in rotation by the time I get big enough for these. Right now, the Imse Vimse wool covers are fantastic. They are lighter fabric, less bulky and have snaps so I can play with the Velcro underneath my Woombie swaddle and my mama doesn't get annoyed because the diaper stays on around the legs.

Often, though, I am diaper free, and I like that just fine. I don't like to go to the potty most of the time. I fight and scream. Then I happily pee and poop on the floor. Luckily my poops are solid and clean up is quick and easy, but I see my parents look at me with their hands in the air saying "I knew you had to go and I just took you potty and you didn't go!" Well, I didn't feel like going potty in the potty. I like playing. There are many times, though, when I do hold it and wait for mama to get me to the potty, or when I crawl to the bathroom or towards the potty or I signal so my mama knows I have to go.

We are all learning and loving each other over here. I love that my parents let me explore as freely as possible by only leaving things out that I can play with. If they don't want me to have it then it's not within my reach. That way they don't tell me no all the time. They still do, though, more than they intend to. Still, they explain to me in a calm voice and I almost always stop doing whatever I was about to do and listen. They keep me safe so I need them, but it is a hard balance to find my own way. I am just so curious about things.

I guess that is what growing is about.

Me and Amara

Me and the Uncle Raji

Teething

Someone told my mama that walking and teething have been found to go together in most cases. As I am tottering about now and again, my mama is always wanting to get a look at my teeth. Fortunately, I am skilled and even swaddled manage to, despite my small size and apparent fragility, keep my mama from getting a good glimpse of what's going on with my gums. These last two days, though, the tough times I've been having getting to sleep and staying asleep now and again, my hands in my mouth again, and biting again have told her that something is going on....again. Even I am not sure if this is the final push and I will both be walking and have teeth soon. In fact, I could do both by my first birthday so easily!

First Steps

Yup, technically, I have taken my first steps. I don't walk yet, really, but I have taken four or five little steps in a row. Today, with my beach ball that I love, I took four or five steps while my daddy looked on. My mama is hoping the week goes quickly so she can see me walk this weekend. Otherwise, she might miss it because I am a learning machine!

Bun Bun and Lil Nook: A Retrospective

Tiny Dancy Pants

Climbing Adventure

Me and Cece

Eating Machine

I'm a little food monster. I at at least 10 strawberries and 10 raspberries. Yes, ate them. In the belly. Yum. Yum. Yum. My daddy gave me apple, but I didn't go for that. I wanted squishy food I could eat. My mama gave me some of her rice pasta at dinner, and I got that in too. I got a new bib that is working out quite nicely. My friend Anjali had one with a front pocket that caught her food. Between that and getting almost all the food I ate today in my mouth, I didn't need the three baths a day I usually get. My parents are wondering if this sudden ability and desire to eat goes along with my increased fussiness and restlessness and drool and regression to chewing on my hand and the slightly bigger bumps on my lower gums. Could I be growing up? My mama heard that teething sometimes goes along with walking. Not sure if that is true, but just in case, my mama rubbed her face on the soles of my feet....while they are still soft and squishy.

Newest Developments

Big day yesterday. I walked down the stairs backwards, not all of them but several. This was something I have been avoiding for a while. My mama has given me opportunities to go down with her, but I have ignored the stairs or just played standing at the gate. Yesterday I was ready. I immediately knew to turn around and go backwards. After I got down a step, though, I lost confidence because I didn't know what to do with my hands. I held on to the gate, but it swings. My mama showed and told me where to put my hands. I mimicked her to test that out. After a step or two I felt more comfortable squatting and stretching my legs down. It is just scarier when you are at the top of the stairs and you look at all the way down you would fall. I did some more stairs, tried holding on to the stair rails, got tired, and asked my mama to take me the rest of the way. Still, an accomplishment! (Mind you, I was found on the second step at the bottom of the stairs earlier -- Time to close the gate for sure!

The other thing I surprised my mama with was my signing. I love books. My daddy and mama always read books to me. I, as you know, love to open and close the books. I even have begun to "read" them sometimes, emitting sing-songy noises out of my mouth that I know my mama understands as the stories I tell her. Yesterday my mama was playing with me in my play room. She was watching me crawl over to a book and begin to open and close it. She signed to me that I was reading a book. I watched the sign closely, as I am wont to do these days. I saw how she held her hands and opened and closed them like the book. It kind of looked like all finished. Well, I was holding a book, so I couldn't do it perfectly, but with my right hand as a hand and the book (held by my left) as my other I opened and closed my right hand to make the book sign. My mama thought I was signing all finished at first. Then she saw how I was watching her hands and intently looking at my own to see if they were doing what I wanted them to. After a few seconds, she understood and said "Yes! You are reading the book!" We were both very excited. I love when my mama and I understand each other.

Kissy Face

I am a kissy face. I love kisses. I kiss all the people and things I love. Yesterday, my mama called my dog Peelu over. I love my dogs. We go on walks a lot, and I like to watch them eat. When my mama called Peelu over I felt excited. I leaned in for a kiss, but Peelu moved away. I give my mama kisses, and my daddy, and all my friends. I am a kissy, kissy face. (One could read this "spitty spitty face and be rather accurate as well since my kisses are rather spitty.)

Out the Bed

I did it again. I fell/crawled out of bed. My mama heard a thud and came. I had crawled over giant obstacles, off the (low) bed and out of the bedroom into the little baby room, my one arm happily out of the sleep sack/swaddle. Yet again, I was unbruised and unharmed, but my parents were upset that the monitor signal had cut out and they didn't realize. Still, it was another chance for me to tell them that I am getting older and will all too soon want my freedom to wake up and crawl into my play room on my own when I wake up. They aren't ready for me, but there's no stopping my progress!

Mmmm....Green Beans....

Aunt B took this picture of me at the party the other day.

Visit to Malcolm's

When I got there, Malcolm was napping, but his daddy, Dan, offered me a snack -- honeydew, strawberries and grapes. Yum.





When Malcolm woke up, I was happy. I gave him lots of kisses right away.










Everyone started getting hungry, so we ate. We shared food...well, we offered each other food anyway. I like Malcolm's mama, Jenn, and she likes me. We all like each other, Malcolm's family and mine. Malcolm and I are happy they found their way to each other just in time through the homebirth classes. (Thanks, Janelle!)