This week Baby will be forty-six weeks, and there have been many developments which I have neglected to report:

• In addition to twinkling, she now claps. Yay! I let Husband believe he had taught her this skill, but in reality, I had already seen her do this several days before at Grandma's house. Grandma had been teaching her to clap.
  
• Not only is she a pro at crawling, she is now pulling herself up using anything in reach. She mostly pulls up on the coffee table, Husband's chair, and her high chair. Once she gets up, she is happy for a while, then whines when it gets tiring.
• There is no hiding from Baby anymore. While she was distracted by her toys, I slipped away to the bathroom, even closing the door. As soon as I sat down, I heard the muffled plopping of her hands as she crawled as quickly as she could to find me. She pushed open the door, peeked in, and smiled. This morning, she was playing with Husband while I was showering. According to Husband, as soon as she heard the water turn off, she zipped away and came crawling to the bedroom.
• There has been a noticeable increase in babbling. She has been trying out different consonants and making new syllables.
• After much practice (with Grandma and me), today Baby has been practicing her 'Please and Thank you' gestures. She holds out her hands together, palms up, and waits for whatever it is she wants, then she will try to give it back. We did this back and forth several times today. Too cute.
• Baby has become attached to a little monkey with magnets in its hands and feet. She crawls around while gripping its head in her hand. She will not hold the monkey any other way. Given the body in her hand, she will grab it by the head with the other hand and crawl away.
• Baby loves yogurt.
• Baby loves rice. (Go figure.)
• Baby likes dogs. But from a distance.

From Anneli 6

'This is my monkey!'

From Anneli 6

Merry Christmas! Today Baby is forty-five weeks old, a fantastic way to mark the occasion. We went to a cousin's house for dinner with the family. Upon entering the house, we were 'ambushed' by her two little boys, who were excited to have a baby visit them. Baby was terribly frightened at first because they were loud and rambunctious, neither of which she is used to. I took her to play away from the boys, and she eventually calmed down, so when the rest of the family arrived, she was less nervous. We had a delicious dinner, which Baby also enjoyed [she apparently likes turkey and ham, as well as mashed potatoes and creamed broccoli].

We didn't officially get Baby anything for Christmas--we buy her many gifts and shower her with love every day of the year--but she did receive a couple presents from family. She got a set of bath toys from Victoria's family, and a musical vibrating elephant thing from the evening's host family. [This musical vibrating elephant could also be 'misused' inappropriately, if you know what I mean.] We will look for things to buy during our eventual shopping trips later.

We are now forty-four weeks old, which also means we are ten months! We took some 'holiday' pictures this week. (I should have taken care of these pictures sooner so we could get the cards mailed on time. They still have not arrived...)

From Anneli 6

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Here's Baby crawling.



And other fun things...

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Riding up to New York - politely ignore that Baby is not strapped in.

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Riding home - politely ignore the ugly red marks on Baby's nose. (I wasn't watching and she fell off a bed and hit her nose on the leg of a table.)

From Anneli 6

This is how Baby sleeps.

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"Please follow my invisible diagram here."

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On Thanksgiving, Baby became forty-one weeks old. To celebrate, she... tumbled off a bed and scraped her little nose. Now she has a red scab.

But we have had some fun developments. Her teeth continue to grow, and new ones come in. She has learned to 'twinkle' (roll her hands back and forth) along to 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.' And in the last two days, she has learned to crawl. (Still deliberately and carefully, but I'll enjoy while I can.) I have attempted to catch the twinkling on video, but she freezes when she sees the camera. We'll work on capturing the crawling this weekend.

No pictures yet. I've been lazy about taking them recently. Will do better this week and weekend.

Baby is thirty-nine weeks and nine months old.

I discovered that Husband and Baby took some photos this week while I was at work and they were home. I'll have to find the picture of me doing the same thing.

From Anneli 5

From Anneli 5

Correction: Tomorrow Baby will be thirty-eight weeks. [Apparently I cannot count well.]

Watching TV

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'I didn't say you could take my picture!'

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Baby does know how to laugh. No more strange guttoral screeches.

So apparently my counting has been off--we have actually completed thirty-eight weeks. Oops.

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We enter the thirty-seventh week with some fun developments. Baby's top front teeth have started to grow, so she clicks and grinds her teeth, especially when she is trying to sleep. (It's hard to bear when she does it with her head on my shoulder; there's no way to stop her.) Baby has discovered LAUGHING. On Sunday, she was cracking up because Husband was throwing a tiny paper airplane in front of her. All wide-mouthed and goofy. Baby has also decided she wants to be mobile, but she has yet to learn to crawl. She seems resistant to it, since she hates being on her tummy; with some struggle, she can inch backwards and swivel. She tries to move from the sitting position, which only leads to her sprawled face down on the floor with one leg folded beneath her.

We are also approaching Halloween. While she probably won't be awake to do Halloween stuff with other kids, I'm thinking about letting her make an appearance at my parents' church. They are having a party for the kids, a sort of 'it's-not-a-Halloween-party-cuz-we're-Christian-but-it's-Halloween' thing. Dress up Baby in her costume and let people ooh and ahh about how cute she is. (Duh.)

We continue with our thirty-fifth week with more difficulty pooping. Not sure what is causing her constipation, as her diet has not changed. Today she finally got the poop out--several minutes of strained pushing, whining, much assistance on my part--and she even had a really messy poop a few hours later. Hopefully this means the constipation is gone.

It's been all about poop lately, hasn't it? So goes the life of a baby.

Baby plays with her 'twin.'

From Anneli 5

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And waiting for Daddy...

From Anneli 5

We marked our thirty-fourth week with a fever. Yesterday morning, Baby woke up flushed and feverish. I mistakenly thought she was just hot from being wrapped in a warm blanket. My assessment of her condition changed as soon as she vomited all of her milk--twice. I considered taking the day off, but I had already put in for leave today, so I drove her to Mom's as usual, hoping for the best. I'm lucky that we have a caretaker we trust blindly; otherwise, I would have stayed home with her. Baby had a pretty awful day, with the fever coming and going and simply not feeling well.

She woke up with a slight fever this morning, but overall, she looked better. She even kept down her milk. I only encountered some difficulty tonight when I tried to feed her, and she was obviously trying to poop. (She had not pooped since two days ago.) I checked her diaper but saw nothing; however, she kept pushing and whining. I knew she was probably constipated, and the harder she pushed, the more she whined. I gave her a hand--push her knees up, spread the cheeks--and slowly but surely, the poo came out in solid clumps that I can only describe as 'floaters.' (Haha.) After another fifteen seconds of straining, she got out the last of it, poor thing. Perhaps she was too tired to eat after that; she just wanted to sleep. I can still hear her sighing as she tries to fall asleep. Too cute.

I do wonder how she will respond to seeing Husband come home tomorrow. Hopefully he will try to get here before she falls asleep. (That means you have to get up and on the road early, Husband.)

MySpace baby.

From Anneli 5

And the 'I think I pooped' face.

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Our love bug is thirty-three weeks.

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Happy thirty-two weeks! Pics are posted in the gallery.

With the passing of thirty weeks (and seven months), Baby marks another milestone--teeth! We discovered yesterday that her lower teeth had broken the surface, which helps to explain all the excessive drooling and persistent chomping. We had laughed about the way she opened and shut her mouth repeatedly, but now we know why. She has also started to reach for more solid food. In fact, she has started eating 'Biter Biscuits.' (They're made by Gerber, in the Graduates line of baby food. Mom had no idea why they were called Graduates, but she figured the long biscuits would be easy for Baby to hold and suck. After I explained the significance of the name--for babies who have 'graduated' from baby food--she said, 'Ohhh, I get it.' While designed for older babies, I see no harm in letting Baby eat them. They are just biscuits.)

She has started to focus her babbling on the 'ma' sound. She repeats the syllable so it sounds like she is calling me. I don't think she actually is--she seems too young for that--but I suppose she'll learn what it means if I continue to respond to her calling. :)

Twenty-nine weeks and counting!









And check out what she can do... with her toes!