Little things

Ryanne can now tip toe. She practically runs on tip toe through the apartment. She is very proud of the extra height, but needs to work on her stability.

She can also easily work a zipper. This means no more zipped up jackets for her, or for us! She loves to unzip my vest and will play with it for quite some time. She's been doing it for a while, but I usually had to hold one end for her to get the leverage - not anymore.

She loves to chase the pigeons through the park. She runs after them yelling "do", even though I try to convince her that they're birds, not dogs. She loves that they have to fly to get away from her. Gaining on them right before they take off is a favorite activity.

She loves her sand toys at the park, too. She was playing with moving sand from the bucket to the shovel last time (using her hands).

Her nap time routine seems stabilized and her evening routine hasn't suffered. We are mostly night weaned (working on 5 to 6am now). We have her first drawings - one from the hotel in Tokyo that's in my drawer and one from here that's up on the fridge. She helps me sweep and vacuum (see the pix linked in the previous post).

Other than that, we went to a "Gym Rompers" class yesterday. It's hosted at a local maternity clinic by the wife of the OB. Ryanne had a blast with the other kids. We sang and danced and she ran around like a crazy woman for almost 2 hours. She was WORN OUT! It was a good chance to work on her jumping skills, though. The other kids were jumping on a big box spring type thing and Ryanne started trying it. She got the tiniest bit of air, freaked out and got down...only to get back on 10 seconds later! I think it won't be long. She's fascinated by trying to jump and loves to climb. I can't wait to get her back and try Little Gym in the states. She also charmed all of the moms with her "tan too"s and I got to practice some Japanese while they practiced English. A great social event for all of us and I can't wait to go back. It's hosted 2-3 times a month and will be perfect for us.

Overwhelmed

The last two nights as I've cuddled in bed with Ryanne getting her back to sleep, I've been on the verge of tears. I don't cry, partially in fear of waking her up again and partly because I don't want to end up a snotty mess as I go to sleep. I'm not stressed, or unhappy. I just can't believe how happy she makes me, how great it is to be her mom. I guess I can't figure out how to deal with all of the emotions so I end up teary. She's a great kid. She's turning into a very loving person. She adores hugs and kisses and blowing kisses. I think she's trying to say "I love you" ("Ah Yah You"). She's even playing with mama versus mommy. It's great being with her and great experiencing all of her changes. All of that leaves me just a little overwhelmed with emotion at the end of the day - happy emotion, but overwhelming, nonetheless.

Animal Eat Drum, Eat Drum

Ryanne loved smelling the sakura today, but by the time I got my camera out to snap a picture, she was ready to do something else.

Birthday present gone wrong

I woke to Ryanne stirring at 4:15 this morning. She was still in her crib. This is a new record. Since I had gotten to bed around 11pm, I was thinking how great it was that she had decided to let me sleep for 5 straight hours on my birthday. I had the blog entry all planned - how wonderful and sweet she was, how she was sleeping better, etc. Then she stayed up talking to me about "mayna"s and other stuff with some crying thrown in for flavor until 5:30am. I decided she was cruel and an evil temptress out to tease me. She did sleep again until 7:15, but it wasn't the same. Oh well...better luck next year.

In other news, she's trying to say milk now. It seems to be "mak". I'm down with that. I must confess that I'll miss the double fisted signing when she wants to nurse, but it might alleviate some of the cow feelings. I figure she's not long for nursing anyway. She's only nursing 4 times during the day - wake up, mid-morning, nap, bedtime. Last night, there were no night feedings so I think we're well on our way to night weaning. I don't know how long she'll keep day feedings up. I must confess some mixed emotions about this. Part of me doesn't want to lose the relationship we have there, even though we have so many other things we connect doing, because that's MY time. No one else can do that with her. At the same time, I'm ready to have my body back. Ready to see if my boobs get any smaller (PLEASE!!!!). I'm not ready for her to grow up, though. We'll see how I feel when it happens, but I'm trying to gear myself up.

Kisses

Ryanne has developed a new love of "ishes" (kisses). She loves to yell "ishes" and run over to me and plant a big one on - usually - my lips. Sometimes she gets nose or chin, every once in a while she nails my eye or forehead if she's really not paying attention.

Tonight, she blew her first kiss to me. I was leaving the bathroom during her bath and made sure to say "bye". She waved and then put her hand to her mouth. She's been doing it (sorta) on demand if I do it, but this was the first spontaneous one.

She's also working on hello (heh-o), bye, television (tevisin), alright (ai-ight, which she learned yesterday at bowling).

She's started grabbing my face to turn my head to her before she hugs me. Oh, and she loves to yell "mama" just to see me respond - sheesh.

Oh and saying "dider" then grabbing the wipes when she has to go wasn't a fluke. She's done it twice more and today she finished going (the bathroom was in use when she first did it and it's not much warning) on the potty.