Friday, March 28, 2008

42. Dance Dance Revolution

This isn't her best work, but it'll do... (Yes, she is in a cage-type apparatus, and no, I can't really explain the pulsating music thing.)

41. Alas, poor Yorick...


40. I don't want yer stinkin' mallet!

Bea knows when she is being asked to perform. She is disinclined to do so.

39. Ten months

Have I really not posted since February? For shame!
Bea is up to so much these days it is hard to know where to begin.
Maybe a list would be best:

She says "mama" and "dada" although she doesn't associate the words with us yet. She does seem to use "dada" when she is naming something, pointing something out, and "mama" when she wants something.

She meows at the cats. More of a "hay-ow" or "he-yow" but definitely her version of the word. (In fact, she doesn't just meow at cats. The other day we were at the pediatrician's office and she started using her cat voice to talk to a toddler who was making up to her in the waiting room!)

She can say "cat." Well, she says "tat", but it is her "cat." She says it for the real things as well as their stuffed counterparts.

She can pat the cats (real and stuffed). She will also pat my head if I lift her up on my shoulders. The other day she patted Grandma Fox when they greeted each other.

She loves to DANCE! This first began while she listened to some horrible baby music emanating from a toy. But now she does it with any kind of music. The other day we were listening to NPR and she started dancing in her highchair to the musical interludes between segments. She even manages to dance to Bach. I'll post a movie, probably one that involves horrible baby music.

She is still crawling all over the place, but no interest in walking yet, which is fine by me. I'd like to unpack and babyproof more before that starts. It's easy to catch her when she is still moving around on all fours.

She can crawl up the sunken living room stairs at Grandma and Grandpa's. (With a spotter. Although you can't let her know you are spotting her.)

We've begun some sleep training. Ever since she learned to roll over in bed, her sleep has been interrupted. It isn't interrupted by the rolling anymore, it has simply never been the same since she reached that milestone. She used to sleep up to seven hours at a stretch. But for the past few (or, many, many) months we've been getting up every two hours to nurse. No kidding. Before the move this was manageable because we were in the same room. But since a walk down the hall was added to the process, I have been wilting fast. So Dale and I finally decided to let her cry a bit. (I had tried water in a bottle and that was unacceptable.) The first night we tried it, she cried for 20 minutes once, and then after a couple of other wake-ups she cried for a mere couple of minutes. She only nursed once during the night. The next night she never cried for more than 1 or 2 minutes and slept for longer stretches. Last night she slept for SIX HOURS STRAIGHT and again, only cried for a couple of minutes after her wake-ups. In some cases she woke up, cried, and went back to sleep on her own. In others I went to her, calmed her down, put her back to bed, she started crying again, but as soon as I left her she settled right down. Basically I discovered that if I am in the room with her, she will keep crying. If I leave her alone already, she is out like a light. I guess I deserve all of my sleep deprivation for not having tried this earlier. Or maybe we are just getting lucky with how well it seems to be going as a consolation for all of my sleep deprivation. Who knows.

I will leave you with some picks of the lady in her Easter finest...