Evidence!

Papa Charley got her to swing for a few minutes, but it wasn't until recently that she really got into it. Here's a nice shot of her clearly having a good time on a recent trip to the park.

Such a big girl.

Christmas Stuff

I keep getting nudged to say something about what Gaz wants for Christmas. Since she's mostly saying "moo," "no," and "okay," it falls to me to say something.

For various reasons (not the least of which was a conversation with Dr. C. at our last appointment) we have decided that what Gaz needs most from us as we head into winter, is help in keeping active. The doc suggested things like organized classes/sports/activities to keep her healthy, and we both agreed that this is the best thing for her.

So, in lieu of toys, we are asking that everyone who feels the urge to get something for Gaz contribute to our stay-active-this-winter fund. I know toys are cool, but she's got more than she could possibly play with and we've got limited storage space. (Really limited storage space. . .) One thing we're looking at enrolling Gaz in is Wiggleworms classes at the Old Town School of Folk Music. Check the link to see what it's all about. It's exercise hidden in games and singing. What's not to like?

We want to help Gaz stay healthy and happy, but since our finances are still strained by my not having regular income anymore, we can't do it all ourselves right now. If you can help at all, it would be very much appreciated by all of us.

The SERIOUSLY, DON'T BUY THIS list: no videos, no DVDs, no books with real pages. We have more than enough videos and DVDs, and Gaz is so extremely hard on books we can't read books with real pages to her yet. They just go right on a shelf in her bedroom and collect dust. There's plenty of time to buy those when she settles down (and grows an attention span long enough to handle Dr. Seuss). Board books are okay, if you're really set on books.

And if you consult Gaz's Amazon wishlist, PLEASE sort the entries by priority!

Electronic Housekeeping

Which is all the more amusing because I'm also watching House right now. ;)

I just finished finished adding tags to all the lovely baby postiness here, so presumably now you can take a variety of topical strolls down memory lane. Going back through Gaz's history has been weird and nice. Looking at those pictures where she has almost no hair. . . it's hard to look at her now and remember what those days were like, I'm so entrenched in what's going on Now. But it's fun to look back on how things were.

Anyway, enjoy the shiny new labels.

How Gaz liquified my insides

Usually Gaz does one of two things at bedtime: she nurses to sleep or she nurses for a few minutes and then rolls over, snuggles up to me, and then goes to sleep. Twice last week she did something a little different. She nursed for a while and then climbed up on me, threw her arms around my neck, and rested her cheek on mine. That's how she drifted off to sleep those two nights.

The two best bedtimes ever. My heart melts anew every time I remember; I know I will cherish the memory of those nights the rest of my life. My little girl is the greatest.

Our First Family Cold

We're all sick. With a virus, you silly people. :)

I think Gaz got it first, as she's the one who was clearly suffering more last week, when she woke up several times Wednesday and Thursday nights needing to have her nose suctioned so that she could breathe enough to nurse. I had been very sneezy, but it seemed more like allergies than anything else. I fell ill Saturday and Mark's ick set in while he was driving us home from a visit to Grandma Judy and Grandpa Will's house on Sunday.

We're all convalescing now. There have been no fights over cold medicine, and best of all Gaz has had two good nights (maybe three now) of not-enough-congestion-to-cause-problems-nursing. Hooray! I don't like having to get the moco-sucker out, and I really don't like having to sit on her to use it.

Apart from bringing pestilence to central Indiana, we had a good visit and Gaz got to be the first one to try out Grandma and Grandpa's whirlpool tub! (She didn't like the air jets, but enjoyed having her own little pool.)

Keys

Gaz loves keys. Specifically, she loves my keys. She has long known that keys open doors, but previously she would bang the keys on whatever part of door was handy.

Now we have two new tricks. First, she has figured out where keys need to go in order to open doors. She hasn't figured out that they need to go in point first or that doors need particular keys, but she's well on her way to figuring out how to escape.

The other thing she's figured out is how to put my keys in the diaper champ. Fortunately I heard them go down the one time she's run off with my keys long enough to do this, and they were quickly rescued. Now all who set their keys out around here must beware of this potential key fate.

More Words

It's freaky how fast the vocabulary is growing. Latest entries are: shoes and home. Or ham; we're not too sure which, baby pronunciation being a little "mushy" if you will.

She's been a lot of fun this weekend, micronaps aside. Mark and I just spent the last hour or so grinning at each other while Gaz ran around being cute.

Life is pretty good.

Plea for help

Here's the deal: I want to enter Mothra into a Halloween costume sewing contest. My problem? I'm really not sure what picture to send. If you have a moment and are so inclined, have a look at the photos I've got and tell me which one would inspire you to pick me if you were judging a sewing contest (not a cute baby contest, mind you). Alternately, if you have any pictures that you have taken of Miss Mothra that you feel are superior, please send them to me.

Deadline coming up soon, so if you can help I would be much obliged.

(And so this post isn't totally non-Gaz, her current favorite words--spoken at full volume--are Hi! Wow! Caca! and NO!)

New Old Game

Back in the days when sitting was a rather novel occupation, Gaz and I would play the up-and-down game, wherein I held onto her hands as she lay on the couch and pull her up to a sitting position while saying "UP!" and then laid her back down while saing "DOWN!" It was loads of fun.

We've been playing that game again lately. It's one way of saying thanks for holding still while I change a diaper. It's even better, though, as a vocabularly builder. Just moments ago she was playing on the couch, getting on all fours and saying "UP!" and then collapsing her limbs to flop onto the cushions and saying "DOWN!", which was then followed by running a few laps around the recliner while yelling "UP! DOWN! UP! DOWN!"

The other new word is "juice." She likes saying it more than she likes drinking it.

Another cool new vocabulary twist is that she understands way more than she did just a couple of weeks ago. Now when we read "Five Little Monkeys" she holds her head every time we get to the part where one of the monkeys bumps its head. This is just one example of the kinds of things she understands. It constantly blows my mind that I can mention something like "why don't we go outside after lunch?" and before I finish talking she's already at the door trying to get out. We're spelling things a lot more now. She doesn't get "not now--in a minute."

She's weird, which results in creativity. :-)

October catches up with Mama

I meant to update this last night, but feel asleep while getting Gaz to bed. I must have really needed it!

We have just returned from her 15mo. appointment and her current stats are: 34 inches in height, 30 pounds six ounes in heaviness, and 47 somethingorothers in head circumfrence. She's still off the chart. She's big enough now that she doesn't have to get up on her tip-toes to see what's on the dining room table, and her reach has grown as well. Best part of the visit is that Dr. C. says that she's progressing so ideally in terms of her vocabulary and coordination that she doesn't need to see her at 18 months. We're going back in a month for the second dose of flu vaccine so we're just going to do her 18 month vaccinations then and we won't have to worry about an actual doctor visit until August. Hooray!

Let's see. . . I keep thinking of things I should be putting down here but now of course they slip my mind. Halloween was a big success. We ended up going over to our friend Lis's house to help her hand out candy and to show off the finished Mothra costume. She's a very popular wee kaiju.

She fell out of bed for the first time last week, which was quite memorable for Mark and I. I scrambled to pick her up off the floor even before I was conscious enough to articulate what was going on--I was awoken from a sound sleep by a loud thump, my daughter was not right next to me, and my body moved instantly toward the end of the bed to pick her up before I knew what I was doing. Mark came rushing in asking how she fell off the bed and I said "I don't know. I was asleep!" She's definitely getting more fidgety in her sleep, but I think this is largely due to her crazy sleep schedule the past few weeks. She's evening out now.

She has her first owie from walking around outside, too. Yesterday we went out in search of discounted candy, and at first Gaz refused to ride in the stroller. She took a little tumble almost a block from home, but was completely unfazed. While we were at Walgreens I noticed a red spot on her hand and sure enough, there was a little scrape there. And even though mean Mama was the one who took soap and water to open wound, she still wanted to cuddle with me after the ordeal was finally over and I was reasonably sure we'd gotten the ick out of her abrasion.

I know there's more new tricks, but I can't think of any right now. Gaz is sleeping off her frustration and shots. I should probably get some straightening up done before Hurricane Gaz arises.

Hope your Halloween was groovy and Happy Day of the Dead to you all!