She continues to love her books more and more. Sometimes she will sit by herself with one, turn pages, point to things, and babble like she's reading it. She likes being read to also. She helps turn the pages, usually very quickly from one to the next, then as soon as the book is finished, she flips it over to the front to read again! Certain books capture her attention more than others. She especially loves the books with places to feel different textures or flaps to lift. Her latest favorite books are Wiggle March, Zoom Buggy, Go to Sleep Little Baby, Peter Rabbit, Pat the Bunny, and two different Noah's Ark books.
She has several "tricks" that we've taught her including:
- How big is Claire? She throws her arms up, and we say "So Big!"
- What do the tigers do? Same thing as above, but we say "Touchdown" instead
- Where is your tummy?
- Where is your hair?
- Where is your nose? Where is ____'s nose? (she usually misses her own nose by a little bit but can find someone else's easily)
- Where are your toes?
- Can you wave?
- Can you clap your hands?
- Can you dance? Her response involves moving her arms side to side in a twist like motion
- Where are your fingers?
- Put your hands on your tray. This has been particularly useful at mealtime when she often waves her hands in front of her mouth making it hard to get the bite to her mouth. We say it and she puts her hands on her tray and we can get a bite in!
- Blow kisses, no noise--just hand motion
- Peek a boo covering her own eyes
We are having so much fun doing all of these with her. As Matt pointed out, it's like you can have a conversation with her now. She also has a few words that she is saying.
- Cat pronounced "tat"
- Duck pronounced "duh"
- Doll pronounced "dah"
- Ball pronounced "ba"
- Book pronounced "buh"
- Bye bye pronounced "buh buh"
- Night night pronounced "ny ny"
- "Uh-oh" My personal favorite. She will always repeat us if we say it, but she will often say it on her own when she drops something. On our car trip back from SC last weekend, I would hand her different toys from the front seat to keep her entertained. I knew when I heard her say "uh-oh" that she had dropped one and it was time for a replacement!
She can say "ma-ma" and "da-da" but she says them all the time and doesn't seem to correctly associate us with the words. She says "tat" every time she sees Brooks or a picture of a cat. Brooks is good about letting her pet him a few times. I smooth her hand out in mine first, and she is good about not grabbing his fur. She is also very good at naming ducks which is a little amazing considering there is very little resemblance between the ducks we have in the yard and the yellow squeaky version in the bathtub!
She understands "No" but usually chooses to ignore it. She'll often smile, shake her head "no" and continue to do whatever it is she was doing. We've even seen her go to get something she's not supposed to have while shaking her head when we didn't even say anything! While frustrating, it's so cute that I have a hard time keeping a straight face!
Claire keeps me guessing at meal time. Sometimes she eats everything up happily, and sometimes she doesn't want anything. It doesn't always seem related to what I'm serving her either. She usually starts with a finger food while I'm preparing the rest of the food. Her favorite finger foods right now are grapes, bananas, puffs, and rice crackers. Sometimes she eat cooked carrot slices, pieces of bread, shreds of cheese, cooked squash or zucchini, scrambled egg, peas, and cut up turkey meatballs that I made for her. After the finger foods, I attempt to feed her yogurt and/or pureed fruits, veggies, meat. Meal time is usually messy. She hates having her face wiped, so the best way to clean her up is to take her to the sink where she likes the running water and doesn't notice her face being wiped down. She breastfeeds 4-5 times a day and eats three meals in her high chair.
Naptimes are getting shorter and shorter. Most mornings she stays awake until around 10:30-11:00 (or later if we are out). Then she might nap for an hour. She'll only sleep for about 30-45 minutes in the afternoon, and she no longer takes an evening cat nap. Bedtime is still between 7:30 and 8:00, and she wakes up at 7:15 almost every single morning. The daytime naps always begin and end with crying and she is usually grumpy for a few minutes after waking up. At bedtime she goes down with no problem. She still sleeps in her Clemson sleep sack that I made for her. Some nights I turn on a lullaby CD, some nights we use the sound machine, and some nights we don't have anything. It doesn't seem to make a difference.
Claire still loves the church nursery, Kindermusik, the grocery store, and anywhere where she gets to be around people. Sometimes if someone in the grocery store doesn't acknowledge her, she will start waving to them!
Well thanks to any of you who read this far! I think this may be my longest post ever, and I'll probably still think of things I forgot as soon as I post it! I love keeping this blog and keeping everyone informed. I also love the detailed record I am providing for myself, so there may be things that only I would care about. Thank you to all who follow my postings. I really appreciate the comments and e-mails, so keep it coming!
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