Category: Life

As far as milestones go, she's been cruising right along. She likes to pull herself up and can go from a forward bend to standing all on her own and she's finally showing a bit of interest in crawling, getting up on all fours and rocking around a bit. She loves to clap when happy and wave hi and bye to everyone. She's eating pretty much everything we eat and has found very little she doesn't like. Noodles seem to be her tip-top favorite at the moment and she loves to shove them in her mouth and slurp them up, which is absolutely hilarious.

Happy 3/4 of a year, Ms. Tabby. Your mommy and daddy love you very much!!

We have no crawling yet and still showing limited interest in that. She will lie on her tummy and scooch for things here and there if she's good and motivated (read: when she wants to retrieve her binky), but otherwise, she wants to be sitting or standing, thank you very much. There are also no teeth visible yet. I feel like they'll come any day if her crankiness and the voracity with which she gnaws on anything that is presented to her are any indication. Ah well … I don't want her growing up too fast.

Above are a few of my favorite shots over the past week or so … she loves to play in our bed. I think it's something about the down comforter and the mountains of pillows. And that is her first taste of spaghetti (and meatballs). She ate it with great gusto and slurped down the noodles like she'd been doing it all of her life. Bottom left is her basking in the glow of my laptop (playing Toddler Keys) and on the right, she's playing with her shape sorter. Cute overload.

She has changed so much in the past couple of months …. weeks even. We find ourselves hardly able to keep up with her milestones. She is able to sit unassisted for brief moments now and is to be seen pulling herself onto all fours. Peaches seem to be her favorite food; she loves the purees we make and feeding herself the whole fruit in the teething feeder (basket thingy). In fact, there has hardly been a solid she doesn't love … avocado would be the notable exception.

Playtime is spent happily rolling around on the floor, trying to crawl and sit up and generally testing out her world. She babbles at length on a variety of subjects. We have no idea what these are, but it doesn't stop her from telling us allll about them. The outdoors still awes and fascinates her and is a surefire way to soothe her when she's cranky. When bedtime comes, we read stories and cuddle a bit and then she happily lays down with her froggy blanky, binky and music for the night, ready to wake up with a smile and a coo.

We are so thankful and happy she's a part of our family.

She's growing up before our very eyes. Her head is held steady and she's working real hard on sitting up. The outdoors is her favorite place. It calms her when she needs to be calm and delights her when she's happy. And she is happy a lot. So much so that it's almost a surprise when she cries. And she has found a very amusing alternative to crying which we call “baby bitching” or “kvetching.” Basically she babbles on in a very POed tone in baby talk. It sounds like she's voicing her displeasure and listing all the things that are wrong. It's very funny. “Talking” is another thing she does a lot of. She's been vocal since birth, but her grunts have now turned into babytalk and we could spend hours listening to her and talking with her.

Besides the wonderful gift of her presence that she has given us, she is also letting us get a fairly good amount of sleep. She has slept through the night a few times now and rarely wakes more than once.

By day she is very interested in her world and stares in rapt attention at her Baby Einstein DVDs or whatever we're doing on the computer. She is also a big fan of her swing.

We count her as a blessing every day and are so thrilled to see what comes next.