Lucy turned nine-months old last Thursday. We are still relishing our not-yet-baby-proofed house while we wait for Lucy’s crawling to kick in full-force. But then again, Mama might just be in denial, considering that she had to extract a paper grocery bag from Lucy’s mouth the other day.
p{color:gray}. Photo: Lucy has long loved it when others clap; recently she’s been learning to do it herself.
Lucy is getting more adept every day at her “commando crawl”:/news/2007/traction/. It works especially well on our hardwood floors, where her little palms can get some traction. Every once in awhile she gets up enough steam to actually use her knees, and really every day in the last week she does more full-fledged crawling. When she starts doing this consistently, we’ll have to take some serious action with electrical outlets and houseplants. In the meantime, I’m trying to discipline myself to at least sweep the kitchen floor every day. If I don’t, Lucy ends her floor-time looking like a veritable dust bunny. Plus, she tries to eat little shards of garlic skin she finds, which I can’t imagine are very nutritious.
Solid foods seem to be increasingly appealing to our little eater. Lucy has successfully consumed small bits of “avocado”:/news/2006/avocado-lover/, sweet potato, banana, Cheerios, Gerber sweet-potato puffs, scrambled egg yolk, and pear. She really went nuts for yogurt this weekend, smearing it all over her face and hair. (We made up a poem together: “Yogurt, yogurt, in my hair. Yogurt, yogurt everywhere!”) She has also begun to get the hang of drinking some water from a sippy cup, and she has shared a little bit of buttered toast with me for breakfast. And she hasn’t gagged herself in almost a week!
Lucy has also started to exhibit some developmentally appropriate separation anxiety. We’ve been noticing this bit by bit, but it was very clear after napping in an unfamiliar location (at Grandma & Grandpa’s house) that Lucy wanted her Mama. Another reasonable, but new fear that has surfaced: vacuum-cleaner-phobia. She “loved it”:/news/2006/bunny-cide/ when she was a newborn but hates it now! Luckily, she still doesn’t mind the hair dryer.
In terms of grooming, we have a couple new developments (besides the fabulous new “haircut”:/news/2007/haircut/ she has). Mama has upped the quality of her every-third-day manicures by including nail filing in the regime — the next in a series of desperate measures to get Lucy to stop scratching herself and others. (You’d think she had little razor blades attached to her fingers.)
Also, we are discovering that Lucy is her mother’s daughter in a new way: the need for regular belly-button cleanings. Yes, Lucy has inherited the deep, tightly-twisted Gortner belly button that can tend to accumulate fragrant belly-button cheese. Luckily, everyone stays fresh with the aid of a few Q-tips and a little rubbing alcohol. Do you think Lucy, like her Mama, will keep her belly button intact through a pregnancy someday? Maybe, but not yet! She still gets to be our baby for awhile still. :)
What’s the status on the “Guess Lucy’s First Tooth Day” contest? Was there ever a winner? I don’t remember any posts on teeth coming in yet, but I could have just missed it..
No teeth yet! We are still waiting. Our pediatrician assured us that he has never had a patient who didn’t get teeth eventually. :)
Just wait til it’s cat food or wood pellets that you are pulling out of her mouth! Mo is quite adept at finding the smallest things on the floor, and usually the most disgusting things too.
Ahh paper. Maddy is a paper adict. tissue, Church documents, bible pages (writing the word on her heart?) and the list goes on. I have had to teach her “tongue check” where I say it and she shows it…then “Please give it to mama” where the paper comes off the tongue and in my hand (nice and wet, ick).
Did you know….if she eats a tag off of a toy (or something) you can read it after it comes back out the bottom end? She once ate a green tag and I didn’t know. The next diaper change I said “Oh my what on earth did I feed her to give her a little lime green pooh?” on a closer look I discovered she was “Made in Japan”!
Maddy didn’t crawl until 9 Months to the day and the first two teeth came on Christmas (11.5 months) she takes her time with those things….in fact she isn’t walking yet at 13 months (stands and a few steps) but she much rather crawl or be carried.
A question for those more experienced mama’s…. Maddy’s doctor is pushing me to ween her. How is this done. I have tried the sub a cup for the boob and she is way to smart and stuborn for that. She will not take cow milk for anyone in anything or for that mater in any form (hot, warm, cold, strawberry, choc.) The Doctor says cold turkey…I just don’t know if I can do that. Could it be that she is not ready, or that I am not ready. Are they ever ready to stop? The only reason I am really thinking about doing it now is that this summer I have to go away for a week and I don’t want to have that as the first time without mom or the boob (I don’t think Dad would make it though that week). Please send information if you have it.