June 19, 2008

• Blueberries, and Musings about a Little Girl

   

  I guess I’m making up for lost time now. Until yesterday I hadn’t been online for almost a week because of traveling/busyness, and wow, a lot of good posts and updates to catch up on!

   So I’ll write more, IF I can wrap my words together in sentences in-between running after my crawling daughter. Yes, she IS crawling now! When she hit the 10 month mark and still wasn’t crawling, I’ll admit I was getting a little worried. I mean, is that normal???

  [rescue internet phone line connection from baby's hand]

  But within the past week she has taken off, went from “swimming”/scooting about 2 weeks ago to hands and knees crawling all over  in one day. And now I wonder why I ever wanted her to crawl! This was the stage I was the most nervous about. Seriously, it’s a little scary having a child on the loose in my house! We’ve already had broken dishes in the kitchen from her little meandering, so I need to put the safety latches put on cabinet doors and other places that I want my stuff to stay safe.

  [feed begging child pieces of zucchini bread]

  So while she’s been slow with her mobility skills, I think she’s up to par in other areas. She’s been talking for several months already. When I say talking I mean one or two syllable words, and in a baby sort of way. But she knows what she means, and most times I do too.

  [feed begging child fresh blueberries and smile at her smacking her lips]

  She also started using Sign Language about 2.5 months ago, starting with words like “more,” “please,” “all done” and we’ve been trying to add a few little things when we think she’s ready. Sometimes it’s hard for her to get the exact sign down, but she does the basic idea and it’s been so great! It helps her communicate with us without screaming, and I have a hard time staying sane with screaming children. So funny, because sometimes she’s with other kids and will see a toy or something they have that *she* wants, and she’ll just sit on the floor and say please (signing it) with all she’s got! Has no idea that the other children don’t know what she’s trying to say!

  Oh, but having a baby is the most fun in the world! I never dreamt it would be so delightful! And I think this time of year, for the age child that we have, is just absolutely perfect. She’s old enough to realize when I show her a new thing and gets so excited about it. She loves being outside… It’s getting too hot for walks and bugs are really bad too, so I’m not sure what we’ll do the rest of the summer…

  

  Zoe’ loves just going along with me in whatever I’m doing. I was taking the ends off green beans last week and Zoe’ was sitting on the kitchen counter beside the beans, just having a grand old time throwing them all over the kitchen. I had always thought I want to include my children in what I’m doing, rather than just tell them to do a chore and I do something else – I want to work together. So I thought about putting Zoe’ on the floor with her toys, but thought that working together probably begins now! But all the beans over the kitchen didn’t seem like a good idea to me, so while I was on the phone with my mom, she suggested I put a beach towel on the floor and both sit on it to work. That was definitely a good idea, and the beans stayed in a more respective area. And Zoe’ and I had a blast working together!

  [stop and rock baby and sing lullabies. put baby down for a nap]

  Zoe’ makes me laugh more than I’ve laughed in a long time… Little things she does just trip me out! I’ve found her in her crib a few times where she had been playing after I put her down for a nap, but where she actually fell asleep sitting up! And I’d go and check on her, wondering why she’s still playing an hour later because she’s sitting up and swaying, but she’s actually fast asleep. Just makes me giggle.

  

  And now she’s a little jabber box. Just funny I tell you! Most times she’s not saying words she knows, she’s just jabbering. The cutest thing you ever have seen. She’s in the imitation stage now too – mimicking sounds, coughs, sneezes, facial expressions, body movements. We’ve got a little monkey on our hands!

  Sometimes I look down and her and wonder if she is actually *my* baby. Do any of you ever do that?? Like, I still feel like a kid myself, and then I’m amazed that I have a little baby! Can hardly believe sometimes that I am at this stage of life already! A wonderful stage, but one I always thought the “older, mature” people are always at. And how did *I*end up here??!

  

  

  

  We have a few blueberry bushes on our rental property, so last night when Ben was gone for the evening, we decided to pass the night by picking the ripe berries. I put Zoe’ in a sling because there are far too many fire ants around this place for a small child to go crawling around the grass. And she was thrilled to pieces to be up so close to all those wondrous berries.

  

  We picked in our little trick-or-treat bucket I got for free at the antique store and haven’t painted yet (so it’s not cute like Shelly’s! , but it was a perfect size for her little hands. At first she would pick the blueberries off the bushes with me – I showed her that we only pick the blue ones and she did really well. But then that wasn’t fast enough, and she went diving into my bucket. Frantically diving into my bucket. She stuffed her little mouth and had blueberry stains all over her hands. She absolutely loved it! On almost all these pictures she’s either eating blueberry or bucket-diving for more.

  This is when I put her on the ground for a picture. She looked at up at me, overjoyed, like, “You seriously going to let me loose in here??!”

  Just look at these darling baby blues… They melt me every time.

  

  

  

  Ahhhhh, the joys of babies and summertime!

   

  • 10:29 am
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