A Week of Firsts

I feel like this week was a huge leap in Pinecone's life. I am almost tempted to hold tight to my baby girl and tell her not to grow up so fast. But alas, she is almost 8 months old, and growing up in front of my eyes. This week, she ....

.... started drinking from a cup without sputtering, gagging, & choking. She just puts her little mouth on it and swallows real nicely. My parents gave her an engraved silver cup to celebrate her adoption finalization, so that is what she is using. She is taking breastmilk or formula in it. And she shows her preference for what she wants. Tonight while eating butternut squash and brown rice, I gave her a sip of breastmilk after every 2-3 bites. When she didn't want to drink, she'd turn away and then turn back with her mouth open, saying "feed me instead".

.... had her first dairy(other than milk-based formula, that is). Yogurt. She likes it! She has started liking avocado (didn't like it when she first ate it), and is also enjoying acorn squash, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, brown rice, barley, peas, green beans, pears, mangos, and bananas. The kid eats better than I do. I am making all her food (except the yogurt -- but when I start getting fresh from the cow milk again next week when I start back to work, then I'll make her yogurt too). And after eating ....

.... started sitting and playing for a while in her high chair for up to 30 minutes. Yes, we are starting to see some self-entertaining going on, and it is very liberating for mama! She bangs her toys against the tray, or sucks on her little snail (thanks Poppy!). Her new favorite is the rattle my parents just sent her -- it is silver, and belonged to my grandfather. He died when my dad was 12, which makes having his rattle even more special. It's from 1913. She will even cruise the floors with rattle in hand.

.... went to the babysitters for the first time. Next week I will start working away from home 2 days a week, plus 1-2 births per month. Most of my clinic times are scheduled for when S is home, but I need a sitter for births plus some time to catch up on paperwork. So a dear friend of mine, who is a GREAT mama, is watching her 1 morning a week, plus one of my on-call sitters. Well, Pinecone did GREAT! She had fun with the boys (ages 2 and 4), was friendly and happy, took a little nap, ate well, was soothed with the technique I'd shown my friend, and laughed with joy when I returned. All in all, it was a great experience for everyone. I knew she'd do ok, and I certainly trust my friend, but it is so reassuring to have it turn out so good.

.... became even more mobile. She still just scooches around backward, but this week she would go for 30 minutes at a time, and I'd have to rescue her out of corners or from around furniture legs. She's go and go and go without getting frustrated. She's also sitting up well on her own, with me standing by because eventually she'll topple over. Our new 1st thing in the morning ritual is me getting a cup of coffee, bringing it to bed, sitting her up between my legs with her blocks and a book, and me enjoying my coffee with my own book or magazine. Cozy. Speaking of bed ....

.... moved out of our bed into the co-sleeper. She's only a little bit further from me now, but this feels like such a major move. Realistically she won't be able to stay in the co-sleeper for long; once she becomes really mobile we'll have to go to plan C. But S has been complaining for a couple of months of her kicking and waking him up (the other night, I awoke briefly to see her giving him a nice back scratch), and finally he said he was moving out of the bed if I didn't set up the co-sleeper. My first reaction was "do you want to take the feather bed with you?" And then I remembered that marriage is compromise, so agreed to try it out. So last night was the first night, and even though she only slept for 3-1/2 hours in it, it felt major for me. Don't tell S, but I too slept deeper. ;-) (he always reads my posts, so he'll find out eventually) And speaking of speaking ....

.... started saying consenants. "d" to be exact. As in "dya dya dya" and "da da da" and "di di di". That was in fact the progression. One day is was "dya", the next she added "da", and today she can now say "di". This feels HUGE. It makes her sounds go from babbles to more like talking. Before she was all "a's" and "h's". Now she's making her tongue do all sorts of things, and giving her a taste of what is possible. And she's really impressed with it. You can hear her in bed, quietly practicing her new sounds, and then when we're up and about giving them full voice, with obvious glee over what she can do.

So it's been a huge week. Really amazing.

PS - Apparently this is my 100th post. All I can say is "You've come a long way, baby!"