Now That's Summer

Hi Shira,

It was a nice hot day here today and our pool in the backyard warmed up for you. We had to ease you into it but once we got you in you enjoyed it. You stayed in for quite a while. We actually got to have a 'family swim' in the backyard for the first time. When you weren't in the pool you were in the playpen and you are now able to stand hanging on to the side of it for several minutes. You got pretty heated up in the morning while watching your big sister win the bike derby.



Love, Aba

Behind our Backs

Hi Shira,

We're probably not the only parents who use this strategy. You put your child in the high chair and put something on their tray to play with. Then you set about getting the food ready for the child or other members of the family. Pretty soon you notice that the toys are on the floor and you put them back on the tray for the child. And the process repeats. Recently, I thought I would watch what you did with the toys instead of turning my back. After watching you take one of the two toys, look at it briefly, then look over the right side of the chair, drop the toy to the floor, I noticed your mom's camera nearby and grabbed it to shoot this video.
What you did with the first object was almost exactly a mirror image of what's on this clip. I think we need an automatic projectile retriever for you.




Love, Aba

Summer has Begun

Hi Shira,

You've been going through lots of changes. You now have two teeth. They're both on the bottom. It's been a while since the second one came in and we're wondering about the next one to appear. You've had some wild behavior several times and we look in your mouth for a new tooth and there isn't one there.
You've been eating solid food for a while now. Long enough to start getting selective. The other day I was feeding you a couple of different things. When I switched to the spinach dish, you immediately made a face and developed lockjaw. But it's interesting because later you ate the spinach stuff without complaint. That time you made a face at the switch from spinach to something else, but you kept eating. Apparently you've had enough of rice cereal for breakfast. You seem to be opposing that most of the time now.
Your sister didn't crawl much when she was a baby. She went pretty quickly to walking. You look like you're going to be a crawler. You have been doing quick little 'planks' (that's like being poised in the up position of a push up for the unpalates literate readers) and even getting your knees up underneath you. Like most beginners you are going more backwards than forwards but today you were doing a little scoot forward or at least not retreating.
You love to play with your sister as you can see in the video. She is pretty good at being willing to play with you. At least she seems to get something out of it too, so you benefit from her interest.
You seem to enjoy being in the swimming pool quite a bit, too. At least the warm pool at Kahneetah. You seem to play in the water more than Sidra did at your age, but you're getting more chances to do it than she did. You like to splash. You do that in the pool and in the bath tub.
You are very assertive in pointing out your discomfort. Your threshold of whining a little to outright screaming passes quickly. At the same time, you are quite a trooper in certain circumstances. We've been to the library for storytime events twice in the last two weeks. They happen to fall in your morning nap time and you've slept on my lap twice in the library, and we forgot binkies both times.