Indoctrination

In the days of my youth I spent many a summer weekend playing in softball tournaments.  The other day I was wearing a sweatshirt obtained at one such event.  The shirt in question features a ball in a glove with a bat and words surrounding it, so that the ball is only a small part of the overall design.  This is why I was intrigued to notice that Alethea seemed excited by the shirt and kept pointing directly to the ball.  I said to her, “That’s a ball Alethea.  Can you say ball?”  She said, “Baa.”

My amazement at her picking up a new word so quickly was later explained when Peter arrived home from work that evening.  “Have you been teaching Alethea to say ‘ball’?” I asked him.  “Yeah, why?” Peter responded.  I explained to her proud Papa that Alethea not only could say ball, but also recognized a 2-D representation of one.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, any guy who tries to teach his 8 month old to play catch is probably going to teach her to recognize a baseball somewhere in the process.

All of this has me wondering what’s coming next.  In my mind’s eye, I can just see Alethea at her preschool screening when the nice teacher holds up the number 7 and asks Alethea, “Do you know what number this is?”

“Of course I do,” Alethea will say.  “That’s Joe Mauer’s number!”

Springing Forward

The time change has thrown Alethea’s schedule off a little bit, but having more sunshine sure does put everyone in a good mood.  Alethea’s been outside to play for the first time in months and my-oh-my has she had a grand time.  She does try to eat rocks, but we’re working on that.  Having a little sneak preview of what is to come has made me even more anxious for summer, but in the mean time, we’ll take all the beautiful March days we can get.

Ten Month Update

Saturday was Alethea’s ten-month birthday.  Happy Birthday, Baby!

February was a big month for Alethea’s gross motor skills.  As I’ve already mentioned in another post, she began crawling up stairs in the middle of the month.  At first she would only do one or two steps, but now she can quickly do a whole flight.  She still tries to go down the stairs face first, so that is something that we are working on.  Hold on for a second while I go get our climber off the steps…

Okay, I’m back.

The biggest milestone Alethea reached this month was walking.  She still only takes a few steps here and there and only when someone is there to catch her, but she’s working on it.  I think the best part about this milestone is that she is very self-aware now and is excited to be doing something new.  She’s so proud of herself, you can just see it on her face whenever she manages several steps in a row.  (I don’t suppose the lavish praise from Mommy hurts her self esteem either.)

As far as other skills go, Alethea’s vocabulary that was rapidly expanding in the middle of the month seems to have stalled out lately due to all the walking practice.  She still says “all done” and “uh-oh” on a daily basis, but she is a lot less vocal than she was a couple weeks ago.

Alethea has begun putting objects in larger objects.  She does this when she puts her toy balls in her play gumball machine.  She also sometimes drops toys into the toy basket in the living room.  I’m hoping this means her next milestone will be picking up after herself.  Wouldn’t that be nice?

While being slightly early on the walking/talking fronts, Alethea continues to lag behind in the eating/sleeping arenas.  She hardly eats any solid food because she refuses to eat anything (except yogurt) off of a spoon and she is fairly picky about which finger foods she consumes.  I’m sort of at my wits end as far as feeding her goes and can’t figure out whatever happened to my “will eat anything, pickles included” baby.

Sleeping?  I’m too tired to go there, so let’s just say it hasn’t gotten any better this month.

On a more pleasant note, Alethea is starting to love reading and will actually sit still through two or even sometimes three of her board books.  I’m overjoyed about this because reading to my child was one aspect of parenthood that I was really looking forward to and up until recently it was a battle just to keep Alethea on my lap long enough to read the title page.

Well, I think I’ve hit on all the major things that came up in February.  To sum up month 10: eating and sleeping = bad.  Gross and fine motor skills = progressing nicely.  Vocabulary = 5-7 words.  Oh, and tooth count = 6.

Thanks for reading!

Stomach Flu X2

So yesterday was Alethea’s 10 month birthday.  Some of you may have logged on to view her 10 month update and were shocked at my tardiness.  My grand excuse: Peter and I both came down with the stomach flu.  Ugggg.  One small blessing though, Alethea has thus far escaped the illness and we are hoping it stays that way.

Upside/Downside

Last night Alethea’s second top tooth came in.  She now has all four of her center teeth.  I’m hoping that this means we are done teething for a bit and can get back to sleeping through the night.  That would definitely be an upside.

On the downside… Alethea has been grinding her teeth all morning long and it is a truly horrible sound.

Anyone know how to cure a 9 month old of teeth grinding?

Manipulation 101

Lately Alethea has been doing the “go completely limp when I don’t want to do what you want me to do” maneuver.  How is it that all kids know that one?  Is just instinctual or should I be looking for a copy of Manipulation 101: How to Get Your Parents to Cave Every Time under Alethea’s mattress?

Alethea Walking

Grandma Debbie helped me get a video of Alethea walking.  Turns out the bumps to her head haven’t deterred her progress.  I know in the video it sounds like I’ve taken a couple bumps to the head.  What is it about having a kid that makes me talk in such a high pitched voice?  Well, anyway, here’s the video…

First Steps

It’s official: yesterday Alethea took one step without holding on to get from Peter to me and then later she took two steps to get from the kitchen cupboards to Peter.  She’s walking!

She also wiped out pretty badly once yesterday and then twice again today, so I’m thinking she may be feeling not so daring for a while and it may be a bit before she tries the walking thing again, but we’ll see!

President’s Day Project

On Monday Peter and I cleaned out our Laundry/Mud Room and organized the closet.  Here’s the before pic:

And here is the closet post organization:

Sorry to everyone who reads this blog strictly for cute baby pictures, but I had to post about this because not only do I now have an ironing station, a place to put dirty kitchen towels and a spot for empty laundry baskets, but this is also the first time since we moved in that the entire first floor of our house has been clean and organized.  I am feeling tired, but triumphant!