tv rules

Before I was a mom, I read that TV for little children was bad, and I imagined that it would be no big deal to keep my daughter from watching television before she was 2. What I didn't realize was that watching TV is apparently not a learned trait. She loves the TV. And she just came this way. (My mother-in-law blames my husband, and I'm okay with that.) So, if my husband and I are watching TV (which in truth, is not that much), and she's up, she tends to watch it too.

When I was growing up, the rule was that we had to be a body's distance from the TV. We would often lie on the floor, prop our feet on the bookcase where the TV sat, and watch from there, because it was as close as we could get away with. I was amused to see my daughter already understands this rule:

Unfortunatly, she has a very little body, so it is not as effective for keeping her a reasonable distance away.

take a seat

In the last week my daughter has mastered the art of sitting. (This would be the kind where I prop her up, and she can balance. Although she has tried, she can't get herself into this position yet.) She is more likely to do it when being read to, because that is an excuse to hold still. She also feels like she can dance better sitting up. If she is playing with toys, she would prefer to be on her back, so she can use her hands and feet to investigate. Or, if she is trying to get to the carpet edge, or my shoes, she would prefer to be on her belly so she can take part in the most awkward crawl I have ever seen. Boy, will she be surprised when she figures out she can get up on all fours and really make some distance.

weight check? check.

We were back at the doctor's office today, and Kiddo has put on a respectable 2 lbs 5 oz (now weighing in at 16 lbs 3 oz). Not bad for six weeks. And she added 3/4 of an inch. Which means I can still stress about my decision on a car seat, as opposed to needing to run out and buy one tonight. If any of you readers have strong opinions about convertible car seats, please feel free to e-mail me.

This also means her classification as a featherweight was, as the pediatrician put it, a blip. One of her suggestions was that perhaps she had been sick just before the last appointment. Not sick, I thought, but certainly stressed from the crazy experience that was girls' camp.

And the best part about seeing the doctor? The paper covered table. She kicked up a storm in glee and uncontained joy for such an exciting adventure.

the rest of the series

Some of you may have the first in the series in the family newsletter. Here is the complete set.

dancing queen

She loves being read to, but has only specific books she enjoys. It's easy to tell which she prefers, because she pays attention to the books she likes, and looks around for a better offer when she doesn't like it. She likes to sit up by herself while we read (the only time she sits up, I guess at other times she needs to be moving, so sitting isn't a good idea). Today we were going through the books she likes, and we got to her current favorite: the wheels on the bus. She started dancing along with the first line, and kept going though the next few renditions of the song. She's already a music lover.

new eating chair

So, she's had this chair for about two weeks. It took more than a few days to get her to focus on eating again, because it shows an entirely new perspective on the room. But she likes eating, and looks so cute in it - a combination of looking all grown up, sitting at the table, and still like a little baby, in her multi-colored special eating chair. Note in this picture how intent she is on the next bite - her arms and legs are literally quivering with excitement.

farewell to swings

A few weeks after the baby was born, my husband found himself pacing up and down our (short) hallway for long periods of time every night to rock our daughter to sleep. His mom said: get that girl a swing! In a fit of desperation, he did, and it changed our lives. Initially, it was some sort of dream equipment. We put our daughter in, hit the white noise maker, and tada! the baby fell asleep.


Oh, yes, sometimes it took a while, but we weren't doing the rocking, and that was the beauty of it. As an extra bonus, she seemed to really enjoy when she was up too.



So, the swing was a big hit. And it worked for many months. I often moved it into the kitchen so she could hang out while I cooked and did the dishes. The only downside was that it took up a lot of space in our already cramped home.



But, it served other purposes. As we started introducing her to solids, we were reluctant to add a high chair to the room, so we just fed her in her swing. This was an added bonus to the utility of the swing. It was particularly valuable because my girl is taking her time to master the sitting skill, and the swing supported her, because she seriously wanted to eat "real" food.

[so i've used this picture before. it's super cute. can you blame me?]

But then she got a little older and eats solids more often, and a little more proficient at sitting (key word: little), so her grandma got her a sweet chair to put her in for eating, and all of a sudden, the swing seemed to have outgrown its utility.

Our daughter was still finding uses for it though:

So last weekend my husband asked me if I still put the girl in the swing anymore. I mentioned that it had been a long time, and I was just thinking that maybe we should put it away. He had been thinking the same thing, so that night we packed it up, and reclaimed the space it took up.

It was a good swing.