For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been pretty focused on the whole sleep issue. But not so focused that we missed other fun things Lucy has been up to:
We Boyds enjoyed our own Lucia’s first “Santa Lucia”:/news/2006/big-world-little-baby/ celebration on December 13. The weekend before, we went to a Sankta Lucia pageant at North Park University. There we learned two things:
# Swedish people don’t pronounce Lucia in the Italian style (they say loo-SEE-ah, as opposed to our own Lucy’s Sicilian pronunciation, loo-CHEE-ah)
# Lucy loves the sound of applause
We did not put burning candles in Lucy’s hair this year, although Jon serendipitously got to see a second enactment of this tradition at the Tre Kroner that morning, courtesy of the Scandinavian waitresses. (No one advised him about “pacifier-use”:/news/2006/poo-poo-head-alert/ at this breakfast.)
On the food front, we are happy to report that Lucy is on her fourth variety of solids: bananas. However, we are getting a little discouraged in the process. Lucy just does not seem to be catching on to the whole open-mouth-then-swallow-food system. She’s just not interested. Am I right to think that we should persist in “feeding” her (or, at least distributing the food all over her face) so that she can learn this skill? We are thinking that we’ll at least try again every few days. In related news, after a respite of a few weeks, Lucy’s “raspberry-blowing ability”:/news/2006/fresh-raspberries/ is back, bigger than ever. She had a lot of fun blowing bananas all over the place the other day (of course, not really *eating* any, but having fun anyway). In the meantime, Lucy is content to be a milk-fed baby. Lately, she has been trying to talk *while* nursing, which results in an amusing “oi-oi-oi” sound. We have not yet taught her not to talk when her mouth is full.
Lucy’s communication abilities are expanding in other ways, too. She is definitely a consistent “babbler” now, interjecting a variety of consonants into her “long vowels”:/news/2006/poo-poo-head-alert/. “Meh-meh” and “beh-beh” are the most frequently heard combinations, and she also works double-u’s in there, resulting in “mweh-bweh,” etc. Also, I’ve been trying to teach Lucy some baby sign language. Lately, when I make the sign for milk, Lucy smiles and sometimes giggles. (Do you think she knows what it means?) Lucy has been enjoying occasional games of peek-a-boo with us, and smiling with her new, scrunchy-face smile (see photo). We think she is so cute, we can hardly stand it!
In the world of kinetic intelligence, we also have some developments. In an attempt to provide Lucy with a little traction for her crawling practice, we busted out Mama’s old yoga mat. Baby has a better grip now, and Mama might even be inspired to do a sun salutation here and there. Another fun discovery of Lucy’s has been the joy of splashing in the tub. This means that we have migrated to the joys of bathing Lucy in the real bathtub, not the “kitchen sink”:/news/2006/ill-have-the-duck/ any more, which quickly became more damp than we wanted. Lucy has also mastered the ability to press the “smiley-face on her exersaucer”:/news/2006/go-cubs-2/ to make it play “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” We are proud of her, but must confess that this song is really annoying. (Why all the tinny electronic music in kids toys?)
Mama and Papa were distressed last week when Lucy had two tumbles in one day: the first, falling out of her “laundry basket”:/news/2006/good-clean-fun/ (which now needs protective bumpers around it), and the second, falling head-first out of Mama’s lap in a mishandled handoff with Papa. Oops. Lucy cried for about 20 seconds and went merrily on her way. It took Mama and Papa only another hour to resume their normal heart rates.
“Sleep-wise”:/news/2006/taking-the-plunge/, we are glad to report that things are going quite well. The last several nights have been the best ever, with Lucy going to sleep after only a few minutes of crying and usually staying asleep until her dream feed. What a resilient girl!
Our latest pronouncement: Lucy is definitely a cuddly baby. When she was small, we used to think that she wasn’t very cuddly — she didn’t seem comforted by “simply being held”:/news/2006/why-why/. But now, she enjoys being held and snuggled, especially when we are in the middle of eating dinner. :) She is very content to sit in one of our laps and “lick a spoon”:/news/2006/ready-for-solids/. What a treat for us that she has changed!
I suggest trying pieces of banana and avocado that are well mashed but Lucy will still be able to pick up. Perhaps she just doesn’t enjoy being treated like a baby :) I wouldn’t force the issue, but always offer a small amount, she can choose to eat or leave it, but she gets used to the idea of sitting down to food.
Mo enjoys crawling around in the tub while I shower. He gets to play, mama gets clean, and we both are happy.