Friday, November 14, 2008

12 months (+1) checkup

Yesterday was the 12-month checkup, off by only a month and change ... Annika clocks in at 20 pounds, 14 oz., stands 29 1/2 inches tall, and amazed the doctor and the nurses with how far ahead of the curve she is, developmentally -- R. theorizes that the slight slowdown in physical growth is due to all of her energies and calorie intake being funnelled directly to her brain (language, concepts, etc.) and all that running she does. :-)

We tried a couple of new things yesterday, since I stayed home with her in case she got a fever from the shots (she did -- only a degree or so, but we felt a lot better having her at home than at baby school). She absolutely LOVED the strawberries I cut up for her at lunch, and seemed to take to the sweet potato I cooked and mashed up for her dinner -- AND used a spoon herself for the first time! It's mostly been my own reluctance to deal with the mess that's held us back from trying it, but I thought, ehh, this sweet potato will stick to a spoon all right. So I loaded up a baby spoon, put it on her tray, and she grabbed it by the handle end, turned it upside down, and scooped it right into her mouth! I couldn't believe it. Several more spoonfuls in the same fashion were successfully delivered before she got bored and started waving it around, at which point I finished feeding her myself so she'd actually get all of it in her stomach instead of mostly in her hair. Ever onward!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

New things, and a toddler smackdown

New things:
--We’re phasing cow’s milk into Annika’s daily diet now, and because she hasn’t liked any of the sippy cups we’ve tried, but took to a straw really well, we got a few of the straw-sippy cups, which she is really getting the hang of. She can even say a word that means milk (“muh!”), and holy schnikes, does she look cute walking around drinking out of it!

--We’re also trying to phase out the baby foods; she’s been ready for more complex food for awhile, but the convenience and variety of the ready-made kind is hard to top. Anything that can be cut or torn into small pieces is good – she’s enjoyed pasta, beans, tortillas, pears, bananas, bread, onion bagel with cream cheese, etc. so far. Now I’ve just got to get better about dicing and cooking sweet potatoes, carrots and so on.

--Language acquisition continues apace: Several times now, she’s replied “Bye-bye Daddy!” when he says “Bye-bye baby!”, instead of just repeating what he said. She’s imitating lots and lots of words, and seems to be using “bye-bye” when she wants something to go away or be stopped.

--She’s getting curious about clothes (sometimes ours, mostly hers). Often in the mornings or after naps, we find her shirtless, having spent some time working out just how to get her arms and torso out, and waving the discarded article around like a bullfighter. It is hilarious, but impractical …

--Dancing – oh my, you should see this kid dance! She loves music – she just gets this HUGE smile on her face and starts bouncing up and down, arms out to her sides and head bobbing. She’ll add a few spins here and there (until she gets dizzy and falls on her butt), and nothing makes her happier than when other people start doing it too. She likes anything with a good beat (including my workout DVDs), but her true favorite song is, as always, Led Zeppelin’s “Communication Breakdown.” When R. plays it on his guitar, she’s just about transported with joy, dancing like a little maniac.

Toddler smackdown:
Monday night, R. came home with her from daycare (aka baby school), saying the daycare lady told him this other girl, the daughter of R.’s co-worker, who’s almost 2, had pulled Annika’s hair. Forget that this kid is not even 2 years old and has a new baby sister, which might conceivably add to her wee toddler stress level – I wanted to go find her and deliver a ROUNDHOUSE KICK TO HER HEAD. She apparently pulled everyone’s hair that day, so it’s not like she singled out our baby, and I'm sure she's a fine kid otherwise, but I still have absolutely murderous feelings toward her. It’s probably a good thing I wasn’t there to witness it, or there might’ve been Trouble.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Hope for the future

I’m so proud of my country today (though BOOOOOO! to my state for [probably] passing Prop 8) – President Obama … ahhhhhh, that has such a nice ring to it! I’m thrilled that Annika will be living in a country that chose hope and change and the future over the failed, defensive, pessimistic recent past. We didn’t want to move to Finland, but we might’ve had to if the unthinkable had happened, just to try to secure some type of good life for her …

OBAMA! So, so, so awesome. We had hardly dared to dream it, and now it's reality!

We voted yesterday morning, taking her along, and she charmed the socks off of all the poll workers while she took it all in with her big blue eyes. She seems to have brought good luck to us, as always. :-)

Monday, November 3, 2008

'bama!

The words have been coming at a furious rate – we’ve got: light (“iiigh”), doggy (“dah-ih!”), boxes (“bak-chess”), bird (“buh?”), bye-bye (used anytime she or anyone else is leaving a room, or looks like they might be), uh-oh (used just after -- and often just before -- she drops something onto the floor), and a whole lot of really good one-time repeats – she’s mimicking the sounds of words she likes and/or hears a lot, though she’s not applying them yet. The funniest one was this weekend, when she was eating Cheerios in her little Obama T-shirt, and our friends M&H’s seven-year-old and I were saying “Obama! Obama! Obama!” over and over, and she was laughing and saying “mamama! mamama! mamama!” Attempts to get her to say it later netted huge grins and a hilarious little “ ‘bama!”

Halloweentown

So last year was technically her first Halloween, but she mostly slept through it and we weren’t up to jamming her in a costume just yet … too tired! But this year, she was an essential part of our family getup, which was Ray's brilliant idea: We did Raising Arizona, with Ray as H.I. McDonough (Hawaiian shirt, sideburns, pantyhose on his head, package of Huggies), me as Ed (in cop uniform), and Annika as Nathan, Jr. (grey hoodie from Old Navy). She hit the hay at her usual 7:00, but many photographs were taken, and you’ll be able to see them soon.

The weekend was spent with our friends M&H and the rest of the Sauce crew, and I think we wore that baby plumb out – in her cute new tiny Robeez slipper shoes, she wandered all over the house, looking at a million new things (the band room, with its nests of cords for mics, guitars, amps, etc., was like paradise for her, and a festival of “oh crap!” for us), getting up close to the two dogs (kind and mellow Wilson, a Brittany spaniel, and the mercurial Chihuahua Dexter), staring at the other kids (ages five, seven and almost 8 months), navigating new terrain (thick carpeting, a carpeted step between entryway and living room – she’s a champ at the going up, but bronze medalist at best on the step down), and generally just being so cute it was ridiculous.