Danger baby!

Don't worry, she's not IN danger -- she sort of IS dangerous, is what I mean. She can pull herself to standing with the crib slats, and it's her favorite thing in all the world to do right now. You put her in the crib, she grabs the slats and stands up, EXTREMELY proud of herself. It's incredibly cute, if exasperating (cause see, if she's standing, she ain't sleeping, and if she ain't sleeping, SHE AIN'T SLEEPING!). And she's not quite as masterful at sitting back down again once she's up, so we have ourselves a conundrum ...

In other news: Welcome to the world, Nathan C., newborn son of my friends Sterling and Gavin C.! Young Nathan was born Friday, June 20, and joins older bro Owen in the C. family. Congratulations, you guys -- I can't wait to meet the baby.

Toothy baby!

Teeth ahoy, people! There's a super sharp little corner of a bottom tooth out, with a couple more on the verge as well. Annika is intermittently fussy about it, but seems to be handling it like a champ for the most part. A frozen wet washcloth is always at the ready, and I managed to find baby Orajel today (Target doesn't have it -- weird, huh?) for the more serious phases of Operation Tooth Emergence. Forewarned is forearmed. Or something ...

Also, Grandmother H. arrives tonight! Now that school's out, she's got a few days here and there to do non-school-related things, such as a week's visit to her favorite grandbaby. Yaaaay!

Operation: Finger Foods, Phase: Cheerio

Today we embarked upon Operation: Finger Foods, Phase: Cheerio.

And I must say, it was a definite success. I put a few Cheerios in the tray of her exersaucer, and she went right for them. Even got a couple in her mouth! I have video of her chewing with that hilariously bizarre look on her face, and a couple of still photos for good measure. This baby's on the way to Real Eating!

Operation Finger Foods, Phase: Watermelon

So according to the Internets, Annika is showing all the signs of developmental readiness for starting finger foods. Probably we could have done this sooner, but we are reluctant to change her clothes eighteen times a day, so we have kept the feeding within our own control up to now ... but them days is past.

Today we embarked upon Operation Finger Foods, Phase: Watermelon. Why watermelon? Because it was on the list (you know, on the Internets), it's delicious and nutritious, I figured it would sort of dissolve in her mouth, it would be cold and therefore good for soothing the teething gums, I found some lovely deep red organic (of course!) watermelon at the farmer's market store near us, and by the time I had it and everything else I was buying at the grocery stores on the way home from work yesterday, I had no room or carrying strength for the big damn box of Cheerios. Sheclacky!!!

I would describe it as a marginal success. I cubed up some pieces, no bigger than a Cheerio, and offered them to her in a repurposed baby food container. I demonstrated the pincer grip, and got a cube into her mouth. On her face: the oddest look you have ever seen ...

She gummed it for awhile, then jammed her whole hand into the baby food container and squitched around in there till she got hold of a couple of chunks, which she squeezed and examined but didn't put in her mouth. I tried again, only to find the original chunk still in there, somewhat mashed. But she let me give her a couple more, making that odd face still, so ... I guess she doesn't hate it! We will try again this afternoon, and meanwhile, I'm'a get some Cheerios and maybe some avocado.

Mobile baby!

OK, people: We have crawling! And pulling up! Just in time for her 8-month birthday today!

Annika has been proto-crawling for awhile now, but she's got a serious, workable crawl as of this weekend. It's the mavericky one foot, one knee method, as opposed to the classic two knees version, and it's FAST. There is, of course, video -- look for it on her other site soonish -- in which she is going for her most desired object, the cardboard box that functions as my coffee table, and R. moves it farther away as she crawls toward it.

The one foot, one knee method has an additional advantage: Once she gets to something that will stay steady when she grabs it, she's halfway to standing already! Which she can also do as of this weekend -- we observed the first documented 100% independent sitting-to-standing pull up, employing the stuffed elephant rocking-horse given to her as a Christmas present by Uncle Jake & Aunt Jill.

Time to babyproof ...

Curious and incredibly long-armed baby!

You know what's worse than waking up every three hours with a newborn? Waking up every three hours with a nearly-eight-month-old who's conditioned you to 12-hour nonstop sleep blocks and is now breaking that pattern, presumably because of a growth spurt. Oi.

But anyway. This otherwise-totally-awesome baby has developed a curiosity that is only matched by her suddenly astounding wingspan. She can reach ANYTHING, and she wants to put it in her mouth, and she thinks you should think it is as totally awesome as she does! Recently her choice of chew toys has included an envelope (which was almost worth the very strange look on her face as she considered the three-inch piece of it that got plastered to the roof of her mouth, which I had to dig out very much against her will), the edge of the table at Celia's, R's house slipper and my flip-flop. And yesterday, futzing around in her crib instead of taking a much-needed nap, she found the cord to the baby monitor and started yanking on it -- necessitating both the lowering of the crib mattress (which we were going to have to do anyway, what with her standing and all) and the threading of said power cord through some picture hooks up near the ceiling instead of letting it dangle down behind the crib.

In other news, we had a visit Saturday from friends I&K and their little Theo (three weeks younger than Annika); the two babies assessed each other, decided there was no threat, and happily milled about on the floor while the adults enjoyed an adult beverage and some doughnuts. Wednesday evening, friends K&K and young Skyler came over to babysit Annika while we went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; we will be returning the favor this Wednesday -- a wee babysitting co-op takes its first steps! The people we used to go see movies with are now the people we trade kid duty with in order to see movies alone ...