Lately, my favorite thing to do with Lucy is sing with her. She starts with one of “her "ahhhh" sounds”:/news/2006/poo-poo-head-alert/ and I do my best to match her pitch and timbre. I’m getting pretty good at it, and it makes Lucy laugh occasionally. But this is just one of the many fun things going on with The Lu these days.
Following “doctor’s orders”:/news/2007/tough-cookie/, we brought up the beautiful wooden high-chair (thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!) to live in our kitchen. Lucy seems to like it, and is tentatively exploring the world of food. We are enjoying the opportunity of having Lucy up at our level during meals. Yesterday, Jon reports that Lucy fed herself twelve cheerios while I was out — quite impressive. Mama (and Rosalie) did not have such good luck today with pieces of “avocado”:/news/2006/avocado-lover/ rolled in infant rice cereal flakes. But, even if Lucy didn’t like them, I sure did! Mmm, avocado…
Lucy continues to nurse happily, which turns out to be a nice, cozy time for both of us. That is, until she starts grabbing at my skin with her very strong, pinching grasp! Between that and her sharp little nails, sometimes I feel like I’m nursing a kitten.
Lucy has really been getting good at escaping her “swaddle”:/news/2006/tongue-twister/, so with great trepidation we are going to the Sleep Sack tonight. The two naps we’ve tried with this in the past were disastrous. But surprise of surprises, Lucy is currently sleeping quite nicely (for several hours now). Could it be that she was just ready to move on from the wrap? Plus, I must say, that Sleep Sack is really cute. (We promise a “Daily Lucy”:/news/category/the-daily-lucy/ soon.)
Other sleeping news: we’re experimenting with brand-name diapers (Pampers) to reduce nighttime leakage. We’ve been so pleased with Target diapers for nighttimes, but since Lucy has been rolling over to sleep on her belly we’ve seen an increase in wet pj’s in the mornings. Pampers seem to be working better so far. And, strangely, the smell of them (clean) totally reminds me of “Lucy’s newborn days”:/news/2006/fresh-baby/. I guess they must have given us Pampers at the hospital.
p{color:gray}. Photo: Lucy takes to the floor on our recent Wisconsin get-away.
When Lucy is awake, she is _moving,_ baby! This girl getting very close to crawling — she scoots confidently backwards and will sometimes pull herself forward with her hands if she sees something especially enticing. She certainly hasn’t gotten the hang of how to involve her legs smoothly in the forward-motion project, but she is clearly thinking about it. (Jon even says he saw her inching forward a little on her knees.) I love how happy she is to play on the floor. It has been really fun to plop her down with a few toys in the kitchen and grin at each other while cooking (always being sure that she is nowhere near the hot stove, of course). Plus, she inspires me to actually sweep the floor. (If I don’t do it, she will with her belly! Perhaps I should just attach a dust rag to her onesie?)
Papa reports that Lucy is getting better and better at holding herself up while standing in the corner of her crib in the mornings. But Mama is usually still snoozing at Lucy’s reveille, so I can’t testify to this myself! (Isn’t he just the nicest husband?)
It seems that Lucy is turning into just as much of a homebody as her parents. We had a really nice getaway with our friends Linc, Dora, and family at their Wisconsin lake house last weekend. Lucy did really well, but as soon as we got home on Sunday evening, she started grinning from ear to ear, clearly delighted to be back in our cozy nest. We’ve also noticed that she makes a big happy grunt when she catches sight of our house after a “refreshing afternoon walk”:/news/2006/big-world-little-baby/. Home again, home again, jiggety-jig!
It is especially fun to try to make Lucy laugh these days. Of course, sometimes she’ll just keep her poker-face, but then she’ll smile when I blow my nose — who knew a tissue could be so amusing? She thinks it is very funny when we clap, and “bath time”:/news/2006/if-lucy-had-no-hair/ is just a splashing heaven. But I think her favorite thing is watching Papa dance — her face just lights up. Who wouldn’t smile at this groovy man’s “fabulous moves”:/news/2006/have-baby-will-travel/?
The Pampers do smell better than Target brand. That is because they are scented. Mo still wears his Target brand, and i have learned to change him before my nose wakes in the morning! If I don’t change him quickly, EWWWW! I still love my Target brand (the price and convenience mostly) so I’ll put up with a lot. He’s in size 4 already, which BTW will fit his 3 and a half year old sister if we are in a bind for something to wear overnight.
Mo can teach Lucy all about eating avocado, as he had a half of one tonight for dinner, as long as she teaches him her tricks to sleeping through the night.
Ever feel like you are too old for this? I had friends who started at 18, and while they may not have been emotionally or financially ready, wow, they at least had the energy for this stuff. Needless to say no more for me. I just can’t do this anymore!
How did the no-swaddle night go?
We are huggies…but we are in size 5 (I got tired of poop out the top, so the bigger the better!) My girl was 16 lbs at 4 months..now at one she is 23 lbs….tells you how fatty my breast milk is. She went in for her 1 year on the 3rd and we talked about stopping nursing, I think Maddy heard and now she won’t let the boobs out of reach. Milk is groooosss she says (if it isn’t made by mom). I guess we will be nursing for a while longer.
The funny thing is that with all of her moving around she is thining out and we went back to size med. FB diapers. This makes the clothes fit better.
I found that once walking gets under way, kids start to thin out quite a bit. Mo is already 20 lbs at 9 months, but he’s not much of a chunk, just big all over.
He must have read my last post as he got some sleep last night. What I can’t figure out is why he sleeps better in his sissies toddler bed?
Grace: Swaddle-free life has been going great! She’s amazed us once again with her readiness for the next step. Thanks for asking! (More later, in a post.)
Glad to hear that. I’ll look forward to that post! Christine is such a passionate thumb-sucker that I have to swaddle her with 1 hand poking out the top, but then the swaddle doesn’t always hold… so (sadly) I think her swaddling-days are numbered.