weekend with dad

Kiddo spent most of this weekend with dad. On Saturday I was working furiously on my literature review. I finished the first draft late in the afternoon, after six or so hours of work. While there will be plenty more drafts, it is nice to have the first draft on paper. My daughter and husband did fun things, like trips to Target, stories, watching After The Thin Man, and all the other things one does with a child during the day. It was nice that my husband could take the day off from work and spend the day with the girl.

On Sunday, I had to visit another ward for my calling, and for the first time, left Kiddo with dad. That meant he got her ready for church, she played on the floor during his Primary lesson, and they spent the afternoon together. It was nice to do my calling without her - and while she doesn't know it, she appreciates not having to ride in the car for such a long time.

I think they enjoyed the time together, and she'll be sad when dad goes back to work tomorrow morning.

but I wanted that

I gave my daughter a small empty water bottle to play with in the car on the way home from the grocery store. I took it out of her hands to get her out of the car, and put it near her feet so it would be convenient to get next time. She didn't want to leave it behind, so she wrapped her feet around it, and carried it out of the car. She held it that way for about a minute before something else interested her enough so that she dropped it. She's very talented.

gravity lessons

The eating routine is firmly established. Kiddo gets strapped into her chair, the tray gets snapped into place, her bib is put on, then she gets some Cheerios or sweet potato puffs to keep her busy while we prepare her food. And at some moment in the eating process she pulls at her bib until the velcro gives, and the bib comes off. Then she looks at the bib, considering it, then she waves the bib around a bit, then she drops it over the side of the chair. A moment later she leans over, to make sure it's fallen to the floor. We can this learning about gravity. My dad calls it learning about anti-gravity, because most things that a baby drops get returned to them. I think for my daughter though, it really is gravity, because most things don't come back after being dropped.

This bib game does create the obvious problem of there being nothing to protect her clothes from her dirty face and dropping food. So we've added a clip to her ensemble. It only took her once to learn that the bibs aren't going anywhere any more, and she's stopped trying. But if the clip isn't put on... the bib is over the side, and gravity wins once again.

slosh

You know that sound that partially full water bottle makes if you're carrying it in a bag, the slosh of the water hitting the sides and going back and forth?

That's the sound my daughter's belly makes right after she's had her bottle when she starts to play. It cracks me up.

marco polo

The fact that my daughter crawls (belly down) makes some things in life easier. For example, I can go into the kitchen, and a few moments later, she appears. This means I don't have to carry her every where (just most every where).

Yesterday I popped into the kitchen, and could hear her scooting my direction, and expected her little head to pop around the corner any moment. And then everything was silent. People who know children know that silence is not golden, that's only when children are asleep, when they're awake, it's a danger sign. So I started to call her name, to distract her from whatever was holding up her progress. I called it two or three times with no response, and then, just before going to check on her I called out "ehh!" which is her favorite sound. She piped back "ehh!" started moving, and soon came around the corner.

So she doesn't know her name just yet, but she does know sounds that mean we're talking to her.

communication

Today my daughter and I communicated about something specific. This wasn't noise for noise sake. This wasn't a general outburst that I then had to decipher and guess about, it was a direct instruction.

I was helping her have a drink as we approached the end of breakfast. Although I was holding the cup near her, I decided to wait a few more chews before offering it to her. She made a distinct squawk that meant "drink now." I was so happy to understand what she wanted I was more that willing to oblige. She drank gratefully. What an incredible moment.

say hi to dad

I was leaving a message on my husband's cell phone the other day, with Kiddo right there (as always). We were doing it by speaker phone because it is more interesting to her. After I was done saying my piece, I turned to her (who still doesn't understand any thing we say) and instructed: Say 'hi' to dad. At that exact moment she yelled into the phone. (Yelling is her favorite form of communication these days.) I was so proud. And now her dad has a special message to save forever.