And We're Off!

The walking has begun. It's still very slow. She took 2 steps on her own yesterday, unprompted - just pulled herself up, let go, and walked. Today the nanny said she took 5 steps. When I brought her home tonight she was doing all kinds of standing unassisted, made a few attempts at walking, and achieved a step or two here and there before resorting to crawling. It won't be long before she's running across the room!

9 Months

Hana had her 9-month pediatrician visit on Friday. She is 20 lbs 3.5 oz and 29.5" long. She is still 95% for height, but has dropped to 75% for weight, which the doc says is normal since she is moving around so much and burning lots of calories. The verdict is that she is right where she should be in everything, and "advanced" in some things - namely, the standing and finger walking. Apparently it is unusual for a child as long/tall as she is to be able to do the balancing required for standing and walking this early.

The pediatrician has also vetoed any night feeding at all. Even if we are desperate to get her back to sleep. I almost never do this, but I have gotten a little lax while in Tahoe, since she's in our room there and wakings tend to keep us up. She actually thinks we do harm when we tend to her night wakings and feed her - that it is counterproductive for developing long-term good sleep habits. So I got the night nursing slap on the wrist and we are going to try to stick to "the rules" a little better.

Hana has also been doing some new things the past few days. She has been pointing at things, or at least pointing. We're not sure if it's an indication of wanting something, or wanting us to tell her what something is called, but it's definitely new. Today during dinner, her tray was empty and she stuck her finger out and pointed. I took it to mean she wanted more peas, so I gave her some, and she ate them. Could be coincidence, but her pointing was clearly intentional, and maybe I did get it right. Lots of new "words" too. "Baby" is a recent favorite. The past few days "yabba yabba" has topped the list, kind of reverse "baby." "Cat" is used quite accurately when kitty walks by, so this might go down in the books as her first official word that she uses in connection with something. She sometimes says "cat" when she sees a dog, too, so I definitely think she associates this word with small animals. She does say dada and mama, but not sure whether it's about us. Sometimes it seems so, but other times not.

Last but not least, she can play ball with us! We roll it to her, she rolls it back. Sort of. Actually, it's more like a spastic bounce of the ball in our general direction, but it's definitely a back and forth game. She is also starting to hand things to me when I say "Give mommy the toy."

I'm sure there will be more news to report as the week goes on...

"No, Mom, I Can Do It Myself!"

The "do it myself" era has begun. For better or for worse, the first culprit is food. She won't take anything from a spoon from me, except for a few bites to start off. Then she wants to just eat food off of her high chair tray. So we are really pushing the finger foods, but still, sometimes, we just put a mess o' mush on the tray and let her go to town. It's not a pretty sight, and it takes FOREVER for her to eat. But she's really getting the hang of this eating thing. Tonight for dinner she had potato cubes, cooked apple cubes, and ground beef with red and yellow peppers.

Along with "do it myself" comes "I don't want to." If she doesn't want her diaper changed, doesn't want to get in the car seat, or doesn't want lotion on after the bath - LOOK OUT! Hell hath no fury like a baby being mercilessly tortured by her parents. She'll twist herself right out from under the changing table strap and try to crawl away. In the car seat she shoves her hips up and stiffens her legs and refuses to sit, all the while screaming bloody murder. Post-bath lotion is hit or miss - I generally have to chase her around with the tub of Cetaphil and just slather it on whatever body parts happen to be within arms reach. I believe this is what is called a "spirited" child. What a lovely euphemism. Fortunately, with the exception of these few brief glimpses of Hyde, she's Jekyll by and large. They're both doing the biting though.

Child proofing has begun. We've still got a few more things to do, but thanks mostly to Pete, the living room is much safer now. Until she finds something we didn't think to Hana-proof....

My Camera Is Lost!

Thus the limited pictures recently, and the complete lack of video. It has disappeared into thin air, along with a few other random but important things: Hana's ball, our 2nd phone handset, and Hana's only pair of shoes. It reminds me of "The Borrowers," a book I read as a kid, that explained how things got lost - little people called the borrowers take them.

What's new in the world of Hana? She loves hanging out with the nanny and the two other girls in the share. The older girl who is almost 3 just absolutely adores Hana. She gets so excited when we arrive and when we leave wants to know exactly when she will see Hana again. It's been a month she's been in the share, and the novelty has not worn off yet apparently. They do lots of things together - go to the park, sing, read, go to story time at the library.

Standing and walking skills are continuing to develop - a little practice with balance and a small dose of confidence is all it's going to take to get this girl on the move. This weekend is "Safety Weekend" at the Geckelers - if you drop by, you will find us child proofing and putting together our earthquake/disaster kit. The child proofing is long overdue and we definitely want it in place when the walking begins.

Hana continues to be a very cheerful, energetic and playful spirit. Unless she's totally wiped out, she really just does not like to separate from us or the world at bedtime. It's just too darn fun! When she wakes up in the morning she stands up in her crib and kind of fake cries until I open the door and then she's all smiles and ready to embrace the day. Her enthusiasm is infectiousness - which is good, given that we are usually exhausted and grumpy in the morning.

Hana's buddy Logan is turning 1 year old in April. It's a reminder that Hana's 1 year birthday is not too far off, which is pretty unbelievable. At the same time, thinking how much she changes over the course of 2-3 months, she will certainly reinvent herself before then and it will seem like ages ago that she was eating purees, and standing screaming in her crib at night, and not yet walking.

Hana at Lake Temescal

First Steps!!

Hana took a few accidental first steps this weekend!! This was followed by all of us trying to force her to do it again and a subsequent (minor) bump on the head. Pete did catch an attempt or two on video. I'll try to get him to post.

Nothing New to Report

Since when does this girl NOT do something new? It's been a pretty quiet week. Things are still going well with the nanny, and she's still "walking" all over the place. She's up to three meals a day. Today she had salmon for the first time and liked it OK. Sleeping is going pretty well - she still wakes up at night but 95% of the time can put herself back to sleep without our help. The other 5% of the time she finds herself sitting or standing up in her crib at a loss as to how to get back into sleep mode, and so we end up going in and laying her back down or I nurse her.

Oh, there is one new thing - biting. She's doing it all the time. Unfortunately, she doesn't understand the phrase "no biting" yet, but we try anyway, and when we see those little chompers coming at us we try to hold her away from us to prevent it. Fortunately, as we have learned, everything is a phase and this too shall pass.

And last but not least, we are looking forward to the very first time we can claim a dependent on our tax return! :)

Now the Real Fun Begins

After a perfect night's sleep last night, Hana suddenly put two and two together tonight. "Hmmm, let's see...I know how to get from lying to standing...now I'm lying down because it's sleepytime...AHA! I can stand up in my crib when I'm supposed to be going to sleep!! What fun!!"

I first put her to bed at 7 pm, it's now 9:30 pm, and she's woken up three times already and either stood or sat up and cried. I did some quick reading on the subject and apparently this is common, babies just need to be shown how to get back to lying down from standing/sitting, and it's a phase that should only last a few weeks until the novelty wears off. Still, the prospect of 2 weeks of getting up every hour to lay her back down is...well, let's just say, it's not pretty.

We'll just have to hope that the "sleep monster" has decided to settle in bed with her for the night because I have to work tomorrow and I need some rest. (Pete sings a song to her: "The sleep monster is coming for Hana, the sleep monster is hiding in your bed, the sleep monster is coming for Hana, you better go to sleep, lie down your head.")