Steppin' out

Hi Shira,

We finally got your growth chart hung up on the wall and made your first measurement. It took a minute to convince you to stand flat footed and not on your toes. You've always liked to stand tippy toe. We were a little surprised that you were taller than your big sister was at that age.

You've also been getting a little better each day at going on your own on two feet. You still have a pretty good zombie walk, sort of a stagger but you're going farther without going down every day. In fact the videos here that were taken maybe a week ago seem an unfair show of your current progress. Up until today, I would say that you still preferred the safe choice of crawling when you had a clear destination in mind. You might be almost at the turning point for that. You still did a lot of crawling today but you might have actually equaled the crawling and walking today. While your sister was taking a bath you left the bathroom on two feet and returned a moment later still upright so I was impressed by that. In one scene, you grab onto your sisters Little Mermaid scooter just an instant before your sister throws it into light speed. You've got a good grip!

You're still in a period of frequent illness. You had maybe three days healthy between the cold you have now and the previous infection. We're hoping that your 10 days with this cold are up soon.

You have just about left behind anything that is labeled 'baby food.' You are increasingly eating whatever we eat and for some things you show a major desire. Today I had you snacking on some cheese and tried to sneak out the hummus where you wouldn't see it. Nothing doing. You knew what I had and weren't going to be denied. Your eight teeth aren't enough to let you have it on a carrot, though. Hopefully when you are able to dip something crunchy in the hummus you will choose something like a carrot.

You seem pretty good with your hands, and observant. You are able to stack the donuts on the skinny wooden post already. Your sister had more trouble with that. You aren't stacking them in the right order yet but you can slide them on the post nicely. But you are a pretty good imitator. When you get a hold of a toothbrush, comb, phone or remote you know what they are for. Tonight while snacking you looked at me funny when I didn't pick up the ringing phone (i knew your mom would get it upstairs) and gestured toward the pan that I think you knew had cinnamon rolls (they were covered) in it.

Well, you are at a fun age right now. You learn a little and change a little almost everyday so it's fun to watch.



Love, aba.

Happy Birthday!

Hi Shira,

wow it's been a long time since I posted anything here. Now you're 1 year old! Your birthday was a couple of days ago. So, what have you been doing for the last couple of months?

You've been crawling and crawling but have finally begun to walk. You have seemed content to get around by crawling for quite some time. Lately, you've been showing signs of walking ability but still feel like you can travel more efficiently by crawling. You've had a couple of illnesses lately and that has slowed you down a little. You can make 4-5 steps before going down and can stand for quite a while.

You seem to not have a sense of the size of your head. Either that or you're constantly testing to see where the edges of your head are. You seem to bang it into everything and sometimes it seems like you meant to do it. You bang on our heads, the floor, the wall. In particular you bang it on the wall when you're in Sidra's bed and I'm trying to get you either to sleep or back to sleep. We have put pillows along the edge of the bed so that you won't bonk your head but you manage to do it anyway.

Speaking of sleep, due to your illnesses you've been a tough one to sleep with the last couple of weeks. Just before you got sick (croup, narrow airway requiring prednisone to treat; then hand, foot and mouth disease) you had a few nights of sleeping all the way through. But since then it's been a struggle. Anyway, you are an interesting sleeper. You really like to go face down and bury it in the pillow. Very rarely do you choose to lie on your back. That's why I took this picture of you sleeping this morning. And due to your messed up schedule, you were starting your morning nap at about 9am, two hours ahead of schedule. When you're having a hard time getting back to sleep at night you flop around a lot like how dogs do circles before they lie down.

On your birthday (which is the day you went to the doctor and we learned you had hand, foot, and mouth disease) you weren't really up for a party. You enjoyed watching Sidra open your gifts but you didn't have an appetite so you didn't have any ice cream cake. Of course you didn't know what you were missing because you've never had it but you weren't having anything to do with anything new.

In one of the pictures you can see a couple of your gifts. One is the toy that pops balls out the top (featured in the screaming video) and the other is a stool with your name on it. You and your big sis are posing, each of you sitting on your own stool. It's the right height for you to climb on so I suppose that's how you'll use it in the near future.

You are still not shy about raising your voice when you're not getting your way. You have reduced your outbursts, I think. But if something isn't going your way, we hear about it. It's time we started dealing with you so you don't get in the habit of thinking the best way to get what you want is to have a tantrum. You also seem to prefer shelves that are empty and floors that are full. Silly us, we prefer the shelves to be full and the floors to be empty.

More soon, Channuka isn't far away.

Love, aba