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!