Ten on Tuesday

1. Baby girl is now rocking on her hands and knees. She has been pretty gradual with most of her milestones (accept independent sitting . . . once she got a taste of that she had it down in 3 days flat!), so I think we still have a while to go before crawling. But man. It's coming.

2. I gave her some puffs for the first time last night. She still hasn't figured out the whole "feed herself" thing (which makes our meals easy-peasy since she lets me feed her and isn't constantly trying to take the spoon to do it herself!), so really it turned into a game of "How Many Puffs Can I Hold in My Hands at Once?" The answer: 7.

3. She is also turning into a problem solver. Since her hands were filled with precious puffs (see #2), I was curious to see what she would do if I put the sippy cup in front of her. She looked at her right hand--filled with puffs. Looked at her left hand--filled with puffs. Looked at the sippy cup . . . and took her mouth right down to the spout, clamped on, and tried to lift it with just her mouth. Atta girl!

4. Baby girl has developed a cough. No fever. Normal sleep. Normal appetite. Normal mood. But a wet cough that I don't like one bit. I called the doctor, and the doctor said until something gets worse, there's nothing that can be done. So we just have to sit and wait for it to improve or worsen. I hate that.

5. Baby girl can pinch now. She is working on her pincer grasp with her thumb and forefinger, and when she nurses, she now tries to pinch my freckle off my chest rather than trying to grab it with her whole hand. MotherEffer it hurts.

6. She also pinches her own chest after pinching mine. I think she thinks it's like a game. But I'm also worried she'll give herself bruises and then her teachers at daycare will call CPS on us.

7. Whenever she eats something with a bit of a gritty texture--blueberries, puffs, etc.--she goes digging in her mouth with her fingers after every.bite. so that she can investigate what it is that feels so funny on her tongue. This makes for funny meals and dirty fingers.

8. We had a poo-mergency last night. We were doing naked time, and she pooped while she was sitting up. She looked down and stuck her hand in it before we had realized what happened. TH grabbed her hand and stood her up, where she proceeded to dance and tromp around in her poop and rub her feet up and down her legs. TH just kept yelling, "Worst case scenario!!! Worst case scenario!!!" while I jumped into action, running a bath to rinse her off, grabbing her wipes, and getting everything cleaned up in general. I was proud of myself for keeping my cool. And don't for a second think I will let TH forget his own reaction any time soon.

9. We've been really proud of the kind of family we've turned into. We don't let having a baby become our excuse for a lack of socializing or our ball-and-chain keeping us stuck at home. We load up the kiddo and go to softball games and family reunions and shopping and pretty much anything else we want to do. We are lucky we have such an easy going kid who is happy to do pretty much anything with us.

10. At our family reunion this last Saturday, I felt kind of bad. We were around my cousin and her daughter, who is about 4 months older than baby girl. The difference in the two kids was striking. Her daughter was quiet, a little hesitant, a bit of a snuggler. Baby girl was, as usual, babbling and rolling and shrieking and laughing and waving her arms to get everyone to look at her. Our family couldn't stop talking about how adorable she is and what a great personality she has. Apparently they were still talking about it all evening, even after we left. I tried to turn some of the attention onto her cousin, saying things like, "Oh my goodness, you're so close to walking!! Look at you!!" but TH--ever the proud father--didn't realize what I was doing and would just pipe up, "Look! Ali can take steps, too!" He got several shutthehellup looks, but he never caught on. Anyway, I felt bad that baby girl got so much attention and her cousin was basically the wall-flower baby. We are going to said-cousin's first birthday party in two weeks, so I've already given TH a pep talk about how ALLLL of the attention needs to remain on the birthday girl.

Bonus #11: I forgot to mention--baby girl went from laying on her stomach to sitting up all on her own! We were having tummy time the other night, and TH and I were down on the ground next to her but focusing on our many Words with Friends games. I notice out of the side of my eye that she's gradually getting a lot taller . . . only to look over and see her sitting up!! She hasn't done it again since, but we don't do a LOT of tummy time any more, so I'm not really surprised. But that was the most excited I've been about a milestone in a while. It is so, so, so awesome to see her learn and grow.