So, it's been a while since we've updated this blog. It's been on my "to-do" list for, oh, at least seven months or so. I just keep finding other things to do: work, sleep, laundry (so much laundry!), try to watch TV with Z and fall asleep on the couch.... Lo is 14 months old today and watching March Madness with Z and her Uncle Ben. I imagine it must be soothing to hear the squeak of sneakers on wood, as that's a lot of what she heard in her first few months.
I had a few half-written posts, so I'll paste the interesting bits here:
From September 2012:
In the past few weeks, Lorraina has showed us how unprepared we are
for a mobile baby. She's decided that now that she has two teeth and an
expanded baby vocabulary (bway-bway! <<wookie noise>>,
dadadada, heyheyhey, aiaiai, <<raspberry noise>>, and more),
she's off to explore the world. She started with a nice belly-down
army-crawl which was pretty easy to corral. Now she's actually
crawling ... most frequently toward things that are Not For Babies
(maple leaves, pet hair on the floor, and electrical cords for
starters). Last week she learned about gravity by leaping off the bed
(she's fine, we felt like jerks).
It's amazing to watch
her become, as Zac says, "a little people." She's showing more and more
of her personality every day. She's such a (generally) happy, outgoing
baby. She goes for walks with Zac in the backpack carrier and
"collects people" -- she flashes her grin and squeals at folks until
they smile back. She's been pretty well received in Burlington. She loved
spending the end of summer in a back yard -- she "helped" by ripping the
grass out. Perhaps one day she'll be a helpful little garden weeder?
We can only hope. As we had joked when she was born, she is an
impatient little Monkey. She progresses from: "hmm, perhaps I am a
little hungry" to "Oh yeah, I'm hungry!" to "HUNGRY LADY IS HANGRY!!" to
"WHY IS THERE NOT FOOD IN MY MOUTH RIGHT NOW? I'M FREAKING OUT! WHERE
IS MY PUREED SQUASH?!!" in about 38 seconds flat. My mom reports that I
was much the same. Oh, dear. Well, if she gets "hangry" and
"impatient" and "reactive" from me, perhaps she'll get "sporty" and
"confident" and "self assured" from Zac.
From December 2012:
My mother likes to tell the story of how I got into kindergarten a year early (or possibly just on time, depending on who you ask). I was born in the end of November and the entrance cut off was a September birthday. My mother thought that it was ridiculous. Also, after being a stay-at-home-mom for five years, I think that she was ready for me to be out of the house.... Anyway, the big day came and the nuns wanted to test my readiness for kindergarten. I passed the more intellectual tests, but when it came to motor skills, I had a few areas that needed improvement, specifically, I couldn't draw an open cross and I couldn't skip.
Years later as an adult, my lack of these skills comes as no surprise -- I'm terrible at drawing (you should see my bizarre square-ish representation of the heart and its chambers) and I'm not that sporty.
I would imagine that it never occurred to my mother that one might have to teach skipping to a child, so when the school system brought my lack of learned motor skills to her attention, I was given intensive "skipping lessons" by her and my aunt. I learned. I went to kindergarten "early." All was well with the world.
These thoughts crossed my mind late last week when I was reading a set of "milestones" for Lorraina's age (11 months! when did my baby get to be 11 months old!?). Of course, every milestone chart has a little statement on it that says something like, "These milestones are just guidelines. Each child will develop at his or her own pace" so that parents don't freak out, I suppose. I was scanning the milestones, checking things off my little parent checklist (yep, she crawls like a superstar, yep, she creeps around using furniture, yep, she grabs things and points at things and nods and and and) when I noticed "clapping" listed. Clapping? no, she doesn't clap ... but we never thought to teach her clapping. Also, what? We were supposed to be working on 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' and 'Pattycake'?!
And back to the present:
Zac did some intensive "clap classes" with Lorraina, and now she claps like a champ. He also taught her "wave bye bye" and "high-five." Looking back, I realize that I haven't heard the "wookie" noise in a while. I can't even pinpoint when it stopped... like I can't pinpoint when exactly she went from "lovable lump" to "little person with ideas of her own."
We're still kind of working on "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and Z and I disagree on the lyrics to 'Pattycake,' but despite our lack of experience, Lo appears to be thriving. She's walking (and trying to run), she's talking a little, she helps us dress and undress her (and just today, I caught her trying to undress herself. Oh dear.), she's singing and dancing. Dancing! My goodness, she is possessed by music sometimes: she'll be sitting and suddenly she nods her head, does a shoulder shake, or (my favorite), while crawling, wiggles her hips and kicks out her legs to the beat. Watching her be-bop around fills me with such joy.
Lo said her first words (as in the first words that everyone would agree were real words and were used in appropriate context -- I think she said some words before this, but I'm her mom and I have a passing fluency in 'LoLoSpeak.') at ~13.5 months. She said "BuhBye" while waving her hand. She sounded like a Sugarbaker sister from Designing Women. She has a few other words (Mama, Daddy, this, that) and a lot of expressive chirps and gestures ... and a whole vocabulary of fart-sounds/raspberries. Fantastic. She is definitely our kid.
Love to all,
A/Z/L
