Long Overdue Update

Phew!  Life is busy around here -- holidays, travel, work, school....  but no one - NO ONE - is busier than Miss Alice.  She has so very much to do.  Busy busy busy.

A typical day begins with a clean diaper and getting dressed, then downstairs for breakfast.  While I'm cutting up pears and pouring cheerios, Alice wastes no time removing pots from cupboard and drawers, un-nesting the bowls, and (of course!) taking the kitchen aid attachments out of their cabinet and placing them ever-so gently around the floor.  (CRASH.)

Once I scoop Alice up and into her high chair, she has even more responsibility.  She needs to take one small bite out of each item, then fling (right handed only) the remainder at the adjacent picture window.  Toward the end of the meal, the fork needs a good window-toss too.  Alice is also careful to take a few big gulps of water, thirstily at first, but the last one must (must) be spit out with a nice arc onto the tray.  With that the meal is over.  Bib must be pulled off and thrown (of course), and any form of wash cloth to the face or hands must be avoided and berated at all costs (and at volume).

Once down from the high chair and fueled with several chunks of fruit, and a few cheerios, the day really begins.  First order of business:  remove all books (about 30) from the book basket in the living room.  Board books should be tossed farthest, and a few of the larger books should be placed on nearby chairs, for texture and aesthetic appeal.  Then the cooking magazines need to be taken down from their shelf in what I foolishly termed a "grown-up cookbook section" when we first moved in.  There are a good 50 or so of those to be sprinkled around.  A few should be taken into the kitchen, just to keep us inspired.

Then into the playroom where the real mayhem begins.  Puzzles have been put out of reach (after Eric and I slowly and painfully learned our lesson putting them together each night piece by piece), but there are still plenty of duplo pieces, blocks, balls, stacking boxes, and sorting shapes to be mixed and incorporated into the toddler-family room ecosystem....

Then an amazing thing occurs -- Alice will start to put things away, at least a little.  She even understands "put away" an is pretty happy to do so.    So a few things -- maybe 5% of the total -- are put away.  Not where they were initially, though.   That would be far too banal.  Someplace ELSE.  Someplace exciting, and NEW.  Like down the cat door to the basement.

Upstairs, closer to nap time, Alice has yet more on her agenda.  She dutifully takes Lizzie's tights out of the hanging baskets in her closet and puts them in her pants drawer.  And all of the shirts need to be taken out of the short drawer.  Probably to be left on the floor, but possibly to be taken into the playhouse for a more creative dispersion.  In the bathroom, there are of course a few things that need to be tossed into the bathtub, and more to be taken to the sink (via Lizzie's step stool).  If someone has been careless enough to leave a toothbrush near the end of the bathroom counter, then that should (naturally) be dispatched through the banister railings to the first floor.  Any clean diapers in arms reach should be opened and trotted around the room (possibly on one's head), and dirty ones should be extracted from the trash can (if I haven't been careful to wedge it shut); Alice is careful to check.  every time.

And that's just the morning...

Alice, Alice, Alice.  What a little wonder.  SO delightful.  And ridiculous.  And BUSY.

I'm calling it. First official (non greeting) word!

Miss Alice has a (second) word:  Book!  Grandma called it last week while we were on vacation (apparently I'd forgotten my usual please-don't-tell-me-if-she-does-anything-for-the-first-time-while-I'm-away request), and yes -- sure enough, Alice says "buh, buh" everything she picks up a book.  (Which is quite often, I should add -- the kid loves flipping through board books right now.)   Let's just hope this doesn't mean she's going to be in the humanities...  (Kidding!  Sheesh, lighten up...)  ;)  For the record, Alice has been saying "hi" for quite a while, though opinions vary on when it morphed from a happy-to-see-you coo to official first word.

The developmental blur

Alice is changing so fast, and every day her personality comes out more. She is very curious and inquisitive. She tries to figure out how things work, and is always willing to try new things. While not always successful, she has tried to put on her own shoes, tried to help build a block tower, and tried switching the balls from two separate ball toys. I get the feeling that she is always thinking "what happens if I try this," and "that didn't work, I'll try it a different way." Quite a little problem solver.

Of course, this all comes with some frustration...and a few mini-tantrums. When things really aren't going her way Alice will cry inconsolably, rejecting toy after toy that is offered to cheer up. Occasionally she will toss or slam toys parents bring to try and cheer her up.

It is probably fair to say her first word is "hi". It sounds more like "aye", but she responds when you say hi, and will offer an "aye" when you come to get her from her crib after a nap or when you enter a room.

She has a new way of showing excitement -- quickly stomping here feet up and down. When she is really excited or happy, she will add her usual "tssss" sound.

She and her big sister have a new game. It amounts to Lizzie sitting in the push-wagon and calling Alice until Alice pushes her down the hallway. Then Liz gets out, turns the wagon around, gets back in, and calls Alice to push her back down the hallway. It is quite a sight.

Have you ever pooped a barette?

'Nuff said.

Happy Birthday, Alice... I'm Sorry!

Alice turned one on September 24th.  We celebrated with family party at our house;  Alice celebrated by coming down with a terrible cold and feeling miserable for the subsequent week.  Poor dear.  But she was a trooper for her party.  Didn't eat cake, but nibbled some ice cream and loved playing outside with her cousins and big sister (who happily "helped" her open and play with her presents).

But as any parent knows, the real marker of baby's first birthday is a trip to the pediatrician for shots.   We went today -- just returned in fact.  The highlights, starting with the good:  Alice and Lizzie's new doctor seems great.  She's young, smart, friendly, and has a 15 month old of her own.  So that's good.  Alice got a gold star for baby-wellness.  She's now at the 60th percentile for height and weight (up from 50th), and quite strong, expressive, mellow, and mobile.  Nothing we didn't know, but it's always nice to get the nod.     Her recurring rash is almost certainly from diaper irritation (we've switched brands and it seems to have abated), and almost certainly NOT from food allergy.  So yay!  It's fine if Alice doesn't eat much these days -- also good, because she doesn't -- it's just a phase and the doc says not to worry about it one bit.  (We weren't particularly concerned, but again -- it's nice to hear that we're not simply neglectful.)

Now the bad:  FOUR shots (MMR, c'pox, pneumococcal, and flu).  Alice turned the most awful shot of crimson before finally letting out a horrific wail (again and again and again).  Those shots clearly hurt.  Then we were sent downstairs for a "quick finger prick" to test her iron levels and for lead (apparently standard here at 1 year).  We waited nearly 30 minutes to get in for the lab, before Alice's finger was pricked and "milked" for enough blood -- must have been at least 3 minutes of screaming baby and flustered lab tech spilling blood all over...  I was unimpressed.

Alice fell to sleep for her nap almost instantly, poor dear.  Knowing her, she'll wake up right as rain, happy and delightful, in a few hours.  What an amazing little baby she is.  Or rather *sniff* _toddler_.

Quickie update

Alice did her first clapping a few days ago, at the end of a game of "Arms up". Very cute. She is getting so much better at walking, and hardly crawls any more at all. She loves to pick stuff up and bring it to you. She is so proud and happy when she brings you a little toy and puts it in your hand. Again, very cute. Music and dancing continue to be sources of enjoyment for this little one. She'll dance to music on the TV, music from toys, etc. and she is good at dancing while standing up. The fridge farm is a big favorite. Again, very cute.

Verbal sounds are progressing. We've heard some ma-ma-ma, or muh-muh-muh sounds. Some ba-ba-ba, na-na-na, and of course der-der-der. Liz and Alice will have der-der-der conversations sometime. Raspberry sounds are popular these days too, and one can have a conversation a few minutes long with Alice using only raspberry sounds. Her other favorite is sort of a tsss sound.

We've seen a bit of stranger anxiety lately. At Grandma an Grandpa's last week the freezer repairmen came into the living room an Alice totally erupted in tears. But it passed as quickly as it came.

Alice and Lizzie are getting along better. Lizzie has a new "playhouse" in her room (its really a sheet tacked up in the closet door, plus some decorations courtesy of Mom). Anyway, their favorite game is to take turns walking through the sheet into and out of the playhouse. Its a game that Alice started by just walking through the sheet. Then she would fall down, start laughing and the turn around and go back through. She really is a silly little one.

On a more serious note, Alice is experimenting with dropping a nap. Dad is not particularly fond of this development. It has become routine for her to take an hour to fall asleep for naps, and sometimes not at all. Part of the routine involves her "experiments with gravity." That is, dropping her pacifier and CCBB out of her crib. Side note: experiments with gravity also includes tossing much food off the side of her high-chair tray. Back to the point, it can be particularly frustrating to listen to her protest cries and cries for her CCBB and pacifier, and it can be particularly disruptive to go up to her room however many times to give them back. So, there has been some nap FAIL and some nap frustration. I remember going through some of this with Liz, and I recall it took a few good sessions of crying and ignoring for the situation to correct itself. Alice certainly seems to think that dropping her bunny will cause Mommy or Daddy to appear. SO, while Mommy is away on a trip, we are experimenting with some tough love...so far so good. The goal is for her to get the message that naptime is for napping. We'll see how it plays out, but for now, she needs two naps because she doesn't sleep that long at night.

Bye, I promise some pics and movies soon!

Arms up!

Alice continues to amaze and delight. She's such a little gem -- her personality comes through more every day, and boy is she SILLY! Lots of fun...

New tricks: Alice's main drive continues to be gross motor development. She's an adept walker now, with little difficulty stopping to bend over, pick something up, and continue on her way. She's especially keen on carrying this week -- as many little lovies as she can - her coco bear bunny (the CCBB, named by Lizzie, quite clearly); a little blue matchbox car; empty seltzer cans; cups, bowls and spoons from the kid drawer (which she regularly pillages).

Alice is a climber. She'll go up pretty much anything -- over the edge of our quite-deep bathtub, onto the armchairs if the footstool is close enough to give her a foothold -- up the stairs in a moment -- or her favorite game: up and over me, Lizzie, or her daddy. We've decided the best description for Alice is "scrappy." She's rough and tumble, smiles all the way.

Perhaps most exciting have been Alice's recent forays into language. No clear words yet, but her signing is clearly intentional. She has "all done", "hello", "bye bye" and "milk", but they all look basically the same: one or two hands in the ASL "milk" hand squeezing gesture. She knows exactly what she's doing -- if I say "Alice, would you like some milk?" she immediately smiles and signs "milk." And if I say "bye bye," she'll sign right back. Alice loves copycat, too -- "Arms up" is a favorite family game, and Alice has even started clapping when we clap for her. Very endearing. And while Alice has yet to use any spoken words, her babble is pretty impressive. She makes all sorts of syllables, coos, and giggles with a conversational cadence. Again, very cute.

I think it's safe to say Alice is thriving. :)

It's Official: Alice is bipedal!

Alice took her first official-undeniable-superbly-walking steps tonight: 10 in all, quite of her own accord, during the bedtime story. She pulled up to hold onto Lizzie's bed (not unusual), then turned to face Lizzie (not unusual), giggled (not unusual), then marched the three or so feet to Lizzie to grab Coco bear (remarkable!). Lizzie is very proud to have been the catalyst to it all. When we started clapping and yay-ing at Alice's feat, Lizzie exclaimed "It's a party!" and gave Alice a big hug. (awwwwww.)

There have been big changes in Alice's life -- all of ours for that matter -- since we last posted. In short: we moved from VA to NH in June, moved into our new place at the beginning of July, and have been settling in ever since. Lizzie, at 2+ is quite aware of all of the changes; Alice is not. (Hallelujah!) So her past two months since the move have been amazingly consistent, despite the commotion. (Or so I'd like to think, anyway.)

Let's see if I can recap the big changes... Alice was an able crawler before we left VA, but became increasingly swift and fearless each week. Her crawl is marvelous -- sort of like a charging rhinoceros (because I have so much experience with those...) By 9 months she was pulling up frequently, and could even squat herself back down (most of the time). By 10 months she was cruising, but it's really not until last week that she really got into it. She mastered stairs just last week, too, while staying with O'Ma and O'Pa. She's FAST. (Read: dangerous -- we have an open stairwell with NO banisters! Think we'll have to get on that stat.) Tonight she walked. 10.5 months, almost to the day. I do so hope she continues to crawl often -- it's so much fun to watch her charge around -- but I'm not holding my breath. This is one determined, mobile, kid.

Language is developing, too, but we have yet to hear a recognizable word. Alice does, however, copy sounds exceptionally well, and has a great time blowing raspberries at dinnertime. Good girl, but please remember to swallow first. (And ask Lizzie to do the same.)

Fine motor skills are on target -- pincer grasp has been mastered, and Alice hasn't let a spoon into her mouth for months. She has to do it herself. Independence. Good stuff. Unless we really want her to eat quickly. Dining efficiency is not high on her priority list.

Two more things Alice likes: the Kelty backpack, in which she has been spending more and more time as we explore our new surroundings (beware her ability to reach (and eat) leaves from low branches!), and the bathtub. She's a NUT in the water -- with as much as 2-3 inches of water in the tub, she'll just plop backward, grin wildly, and start thrashing her legs in a double frog kick. Amazing. She doesn't mind getting her face wet in the least, and often does. Just a few days ago, Alice started doing the same thing on her tummy -- pushed up on her forearms just enough to keep her face out of the water. Between the two positions, she's literally flopping back and forth in the tub. It's quite something!

And one thing Alice doesn't like: the car. The poor dear has decided she'd really rather NOT be in the car, thank you. This development is particularly problematic given her younger-sibiling-in-the-country status, which means she'll have to spend a bit of time this fall helping Daddy pick up Lizzie from pre-school. *sigh* That's what we call a lose lose lose proposition.

Alrighty. There's more, no doubt, but that's it for now. I'm off to bed. Among Alice's many endearing traits is her enthusiasm for watching the sun rise. At the moment, here in NH, that's about 5 on the dot. (And this is a marked IMPROVEMENT of her 4:25am days....)

Goodnight!

Bye Bye VA

Like her big sister, Alice has left VA. Alice's last days here were uneventful, except we think she contracted Roseola virus at the Doctor's office on Wednesday. Made for a bit of a difficult car trip and airplane ride to NH. Seems she'll be OK. She's a little trooper.

More from NH soon.

Well, yeah, there was that...

The previous posting refers, I believe to:

The Great Cat Food Grab of 2011. By which, unbeknownst to her parents, one Miss Alice scooted, crawled, and otherwise propelled herself bodily and with great haste toward the breakfast bowl of Miss Ginger D. Cat. Miss Alice (hereafter MA) proceeded to take up two full fistfuls of Miss Ginger's breakfast food -- wet, it should be noted -- directing them into her mouth forthwith. Her parents, Mr. Appalled and Ms. Chagrined, declined comment.

Food update

Alice continues to have new foods every day, and we are introducing them at an increasing rate. Recently we've added peas, watermelon, bread, pasta, cheese, flax seeds, Pork By-Products, Water, Pork Liver, Chicken, Rice, Corn Starch, Oat Fiber, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Fish Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken Liver Flavor, Calcium Sulfate, Guar Gum, Fish Oil, Brewers Dried Yeast, Glucose, DL-Methionine, Choline Chloride, Potassium Chloride, Taurine, Cysteine, Calcium Carbonate, Dried Egg Yolk, Glycine, Vitamin E Supplement, Iodized Salt, Potassium Citrate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Zinc Oxide, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Beta-Carotene, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin, Biotin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Calcium Iodate.

Mobility 3.0

Lots of exciting news for Alice in the past month: mobility, teething, new foods, and delightful new interactions with us and with Lizzie.

Since I last checked in about a month ago, Alice has gone from barrel rolls to a commando crawl to full fledged all-fours crawling. For a while we wondered if she would ever bother with a real crawl -- she was so good at the commando crawl, she seemed to find little need for the real thing. But about a week ago she started to try, and by a few days ago it was clear she'd be making the switch. As of today there's almost no belly scootching at all. And she's FAST. Dangerously so. Developed concurrently with the switch to all fours crawling is Alice's "knee-up" maneuver, by which she pops up onto her knees to reach things on chairs, table tops, etc. The magazines are no longer safe on end tables; I've lost 2 issues of the Economist in as many days..

Next up in the news, and this just in today -- the first sign of a tooth! Bottom right-center, just barely poking through. She has yet to bite me, but I sense it's coming. I remember Lizzie's first forays into toothyness, and I must say I'm not looking forward to a repeat... But we celebrate the tooth nonetheless. Our little baby Alice is growing up!

New on the list of foods are: wheat (pasta, well cooked and cut up as finger food, as well as a soft roll yesterday); cheese (soft, in little pieces); whole black beans; diced avocado; and a host of other fruits and veggies in soft baby-food type preparations.

Last but not least, Alice and Lizzie are having more and more interaction with each other. THIS, people, is what it's all about. SO wonderful. So cute. And I am so very proud of both of them: Lizzie is gentle and kind (mostly), and Alice is enthusiastic and patient. Tonight they took their very first bath together. A few pics from then, and also earlier in the evening, to give a sense of how they behave together. (Mostly Alice glowing from Lizzie's attention, and Lizzie loving the limelight she gets as the exalted big sis.)

cheerio fiend

Alice is full fledged Cheerio addict. Once she sees them, she howls and bangs on her tray until she gets them. Then she shoves them in her mouth as fast as she can and "asks" for more. Other than that, feeding goes well, and she is agreeable with most new foods. Hard to say what her favorite is, except Cheerios.

She's turned into a very regular sleeper, and we've finally managed to eliminate night-time feeding. Her first real sleep-through-the-night was just a few days after her 7 month birthday. Basically Mom and Dad had been slackers and just didn't have the energy to deal with getting her out of the habit of eating during the night. She adapted very quickly and without much protestation. She is a good napper, with a morning nap lasting about 1-2 hours, and an afternoon nap of 2-3 hours. Sometimes the naps are a little too short, but she can usually deal pretty well with a short nap. Again, she's a very mellow and agreeable baby.

She's mobile now. For a couple months she's been rolling places intentionally. then she added the pivot, and a few weeks ago a very deliberate commando crawl. She doesn't do a classic crawl yet, and I think that it might be delayed a bit, because she is so good at the commando crawl. Liz never did a commando crawl and the first way she figured out to get around was the actual crawl. Alice could move faster with a real crawl, but it seems the commando crawl meets her needs for now.

She has been sitting for a few weeks and can now sit herself up off the ground. Its funny: sometimes, I can put her in the center of the rug sitting up, and she gets frustrated. I think she gets frustrated because when she is sitting she can't move around - like she hasn't figured out that she can flop down, crawl around, and sit up again. This happens most often in two places: in the living room and outside. These places house her two favorite obsession other than Cheerios: the fireplace screen and grass. Usually she can crawl to either of them from where she is. But if I plop her up sitting on her butt, its like she gets stuck. I'm sure it won't last.

Bye for now.

Just a quickie post

Hi there,

Alice has put a few more notches in her belt recently:

1. rolling back to front, about February 15th,
2. solid food, about March 10th,
3. sleeping on her tummy, about March 10th.

So, she's officially a big girl now. Other than that, she is a delight. Very personable and social, and she continues to be very mellow. She loves hanging out on the floor with her toys, rolling around.

The big news for the family is that we are moving the NH, so Alice and Lizzie are gong to be New England girls! East coast!

Food, glorious food!

Alice had her first taste of rice cereal on Sunday, March 6th, at just under 5 and a half months. We had been planning to wait until her 6 month birthday, as we did with Lizzie, but it just wasn't meant to be. Both Alice and I have been ravenous lately -- and when I think of it, it's no small wonder: she's pushing 17 pounds or so. No wonder I can't keep up!


Alice took to rice cereal with gusto! As the spoon approached her mouth for the first time, she grabbed it and shoved it in her mouth with alarming speed. (She's been watching us at dinner for months, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised that she knew what to do. Still, it makes me question our table manners!) She had at least 2 tablespoons that first meal (though admittedly, a good bit ended up on her bib (and face, hands, tray, etc.). Yesterday she had a quieter meal. The first 10 minutes were relatively unsuccessful -- she kept spitting out the cereal, though it sure seemed like she wanted to eat it. After that she really got the hang of it, and ate another few tablespoons with relatively little leakage.

Yikes: Old post I forgot to publish!

(From February Second)

Yes, yes, we know. We're very slow in updating the blogs these days. But we have a good excuse: we're overrun! By children, colds, students, new projects and research, and the rest of life... it's a zoo around here. The girls are thriving despite the chaos.

Alice is growing like a weed, both physically and developmentally. Her four month checkup with Dr. Wong confirmed what we already knew: Alice is a happy, robust, and right on track developmentally. She's in roughly the 72nd percentile for height and the 80th for weight, so no concernes about feeding and growth.

Her sleep is regularizing nicely, with a short morning nap (30-45 minutes around 9am), a long (2-4 hour) midday nap, and a sporadic late afternoon nap on those days when she needs to recharge to make it to bedtime. On a typical day, Alice goes to bed a little before Lizzie -- usually around 6pm -- then sleeps until 2 or 3am, wakes to nurse, and then goes back to sleep until morning (6:30-7:30am). It's not perfect, but it's getting better!

All around Alice is a happy, mellow, drooly (oh so drooly) baby. What a treat!

Looking forward and remembering back.

Amazing how time flies. 2010 is out the door, the Christmas tree came down yesterday, Lizzie's back at school, and the season's cookies, gifts, and excesses are long gone. So ends another incredible -- and incredibly busy -- cycle around the calendar.

Alice's first year (including gestation) was a blur. It's hard to believe that this time last year, she was little more than a blastocyst -- if even that -- and now we have a living, feeling, usually joyful but always spirited little person on our hands! The past month has brought big changes in little Alice. Alice achieved a major milestone which, alas, I have yet to see: she rolled over, from front to back, on Wednesday 10/22, just shy of her 3 month birthday. She repeated the feat three times -- for Eric and for O'Mama and O'Pa. And then... nothing. Hasn't done it again. It's a bit uncouth, really, to share the moment with everyone but me... she leaves my sight quite rarely still... and yet. Harumph. (But of course, I am very proud.) She's also very very close to rolling back to front. We were sort of expecting that first, truth be told.

Alice has also become very talkative. She coos and gurgles quite a bit, but she also, well, talks. I can't think of how else to put it. Harranging, perhaps. It can be very loud. She discusses the wrongdoings of her nemesis Mr. Brown Owl, and she'll sometimes beckon the ceiling fan to please come closer so she can get a better look. And of course she demands attention from me -- from us -- when we are insufficiently engaged in her cuteness on the playmat. (This said, she's still remarkably more independent and self-entertaining than Lizzie was at this age.)

Somewhat less charming are Alice's new sleep habits. First the backstory: Shortly before Christmas, Eric and I shared some takeout szechuan eggplant, a dish we both love in large part for the numbing szechuan peppercorns that signify the dish. Turns out, those same peppercorns flavored my milk, and Alice didn't like it. At all. She was inconsolable for about 36 hours. Didn't want to eat, then got too hungry, then didn't take much, got hungrier.... in short, a disaster that led to some bad habits like waking several times a night and very poor napping. The peppercorns are long past, but the residual effects linger on. Alice has been waking 2 and 3 times a night (and typically failing to settle back to sleep at least once) for nearly 3 weeks now. BOO! (Before this she'd been sleeping from roughly 6:30pm -2am, then again from 2:15am-7am.) I'll start dream-feeding tonight to see how that goes. Fingers crossed.

Sleeping woes notwithstanding, we're all doing well and looking forward to an exciting 2011. I'll leave you with a little baby-zen. Happy New Year!